IBM-Granite-Hackathon

Final Presentations

Date: Saturday, April 18, 2026 1:00-3:00 PM Innovation e210 Audience: Class, instructors, and BJ Hargrave (IBM)

Final presentations are your opportunity to showcase what your team built during sprint week. This page outlines the format, requirements, and evaluation criteria.

Presentation Format

Length: 10 minutes (announced before closeout)
Format: Live presentation with slides; include a live demo of your project
Order: Team order announced before the session

All team members must be there to present, please talk to the organizers during office hours if this is an issue.

What to Include

Your presentation should cover the following:

Team Introduction — Briefly introduce your team members and roles.
Problem Statement — What problem or opportunity did you choose to address? Why is it interesting or valuable?
Solution Overview — Describe your project at a high level. What does it do?
How You Used IBM Granite — Explain which Granite model(s) you used, how you integrated them, and why you chose them for this task. This is a critical section!
LIVE Demo — Show your project working! A live demo is preferred; a recorded video demo is acceptable as a backup. This is important!
Technical Architecture — Brief overview of your tech stack, data flow, and any interesting engineering decisions.
Challenges & Lessons Learned — What was hard? What would you do differently? What did you learn?
Future Work — If you had more time, what would you add or improve?
Contribution Artifact — Link to your PR, issue, documentation contribution, or prototype repository.

Slide Deck Guidelines

Keep slides clean and readable — avoid walls of text.
Use visuals: diagrams, screenshots, code snippets where relevant.
Your repository link should appear on your slides.
Recommended tools: Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Markdown-based slide tools (e.g., Marp, Reveal.js).

Submission: Upload your slide deck as a PDF in your team’s repository before April 18. Details on how to share the link will be provided at kickoff.

Evaluation Criteria

Presentations will be evaluated on the following dimensions:

Criterion	Description
Contribution Quality	Technical correctness, usefulness, and completeness of the submitted artifact
Documentation Clarity	Readability and reproducibility of docs, setup, and usage guidance
Generative Technique Usage	Quality of Granite/agentic approach and rationale
Value to Project	Practical impact for users, maintainers, or the target repository
Collaboration	Evidence of coordinated team execution and iteration
Presentation Quality	Clear story, confident delivery, effective demo

Recognition Categories

We will have Granite Stickes for the teams that win the following categories:

Best Project
Runner Up

Tips for a Great Presentation

Practice your presentation at least once before the day.
Time yourself — don’t run over your allotted slot.
Have a backup plan for your demo (a pre-recorded video) in case of technical issues.
Be ready for questions — the audience and BJ Hargrave may ask about your technical choices.
Tell a story — the best presentations explain not just what you built but why it matters.

Day-of Logistics

Arrive early to test your screen sharing and demo environment.
Have your slide deck open and your project running before your slot.
One team member should drive the demo while another narrates, or divide it however works best for your team.
Keep a local or recorded backup demo ready in case connectivity fails.

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