scientific-slides

What this skill does

# Scientific Slides

## Overview

Scientific presentations are a critical medium for communicating research, sharing findings, and engaging with academic and professional audiences. This skill provides comprehensive guidance for creating effective scientific presentations, from structure and content development to visual design and delivery preparation.

**Key Focus**: Oral presentations for conferences, seminars, defenses, and professional talks.

**CRITICAL DESIGN PHILOSOPHY**: Scientific presentations should be VISUALLY ENGAGING and RESEARCH-BACKED. Avoid dry, text-heavy slides at all costs. Great scientific presentations combine:
- **Compelling visuals**: High-quality figures, images, diagrams (not just bullet points)
- **Research context**: Proper citations from research-lookup establishing credibility
- **Minimal text**: Bullet points as prompts, YOU provide the explanation verbally
- **Professional design**: Modern color schemes, strong visual hierarchy, generous white space
- **Story-driven**: Clear narrative arc, not just data dumps

**Remember**: Boring presentations = forgotten science. Make your slides visually memorable while maintaining scientific rigor through proper citations.

## When to Use This Skill

This skill should be used when:
- Preparing conference presentations (5-20 minutes)
- Developing academic seminars (45-60 minutes)
- Creating thesis or dissertation defense presentations
- Designing grant pitch presentations
- Preparing journal club presentations
- Giving research talks at institutions or companies
- Teaching or tutorial presentations on scientific topics

## Slide Generation with Nano Banana Pro

**This skill uses Nano Banana Pro AI to generate stunning presentation slides automatically.**

There are two workflows depending on output format:

### Default Workflow: PDF Slides (Recommended)

Generate each slide as a complete image using Nano Banana Pro, then combine into a PDF. This produces the most visually stunning results.

**How it works:**
1. **Plan the deck**: Create a detailed plan for each slide (title, key points, visual elements)
2. **Generate slides**: Call Nano Banana Pro for each slide to create complete slide images
3. **Combine to PDF**: Assemble slide images into a single PDF presentation

**Step 1: Plan Each Slide**

Before generating, create a detailed plan for your presentation:

```markdown
# Presentation Plan: Introduction to Machine Learning

## Slide 1: Title Slide
- Title: "Machine Learning: From Theory to Practice"
- Subtitle: "AI Conference 2025"
- Speaker: Dr. Jane Smith, University of XYZ
- Visual: Modern abstract neural network background

## Slide 2: Introduction
- Title: "Why Machine Learning Matters"
- Key points: Industry adoption, breakthrough applications, future potential
- Visual: Icons showing different ML applications (healthcare, finance, robotics)

## Slide 3: Core Concepts
- Title: "The Three Types of Learning"
- Content: Supervised, Unsupervised, Reinforcement
- Visual: Three-part diagram showing each type with examples

... (continue for all slides)
```

**Step 2: Generate Each Slide**

Use the `generate_slide_image.py` script to create each slide.

**CRITICAL: Formatting Consistency Protocol**

To ensure unified formatting across all slides in a presentation:

1. **Define a Formatting Goal** at the start of your presentation and include it in EVERY prompt:
   - Color scheme (e.g., "dark blue background, white text, gold accents")
   - Typography style (e.g., "bold sans-serif titles, clean body text")
   - Visual style (e.g., "minimal, professional, corporate aesthetic")
   - Layout approach (e.g., "generous white space, left-aligned content")

2. **Always attach the previous slide** when generating subsequent slides using `--attach`:
   - This allows Nano Banana Pro to see and match the existing style
   - Creates visual continuity throughout the deck
   - Ensures consistent colors, fonts, and design language

3. **Default author is "K-Dense"** unless another name is specified

4. **Include citations directly in the prompt** for slides that reference research:
   - Add citations in the prompt text so they appear on the generated slide
   - Use format: "Include citation: (Author et al., Year)" or "Show reference: Author et al., Year"
   - For multiple citations, list them all in the prompt
   - Citations should appear in small text at the bottom of the slide or near relevant content

5. **Attach existing figures/data for results slides** (CRITICAL for data-driven presentations):
   - When creating slides about results, ALWAYS check for existing figures in:
     - The working directory (e.g., `figures/`, `results/`, `plots/`, `images/`)
     - User-provided input files or directories
     - Any data visualizations, charts, or graphs relevant to the presentation
   - Use `--attach` to include these figures so Nano Banana Pro can incorporate them:
     - Attach the actual data figure/chart for results slides
     - Attach relevant diagrams for methodology slides
     - Attach logos or institutional images for title slides
   - When attaching data figures, describe what you want in the prompt:
     - "Create a slide presenting the attached results chart with key findings highlighted"
     - "Build a slide around this attached figure, add title and bullet points explaining the data"
     - "Incorporate the attached graph into a results slide with interpretation"
   - **Before generating results slides**: List files in the working directory to find relevant figures
   - Multiple figures can be attached: `--attach fig1.png --attach fig2.png`

**Example with formatting consistency, citations, and figure attachments:**

```bash
# Title slide (first slide - establishes the style)
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Title slide for presentation: 'Machine Learning: From Theory to Practice'. Subtitle: 'AI Conference 2025'. Speaker: K-Dense. FORMATTING GOAL: Dark blue background (#1a237e), white text, gold accents (#ffc107), minimal design, sans-serif fonts, generous margins, no decorative elements." -o slides/01_title.png

# Content slide with citations (attach previous slide for consistency)
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Why Machine Learning Matters'. Three key points with simple icons: 1) Industry adoption, 2) Breakthrough applications, 3) Future potential. CITATIONS: Include at bottom in small text: (LeCun et al., 2015; Goodfellow et al., 2016). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style - dark blue background, white text, gold accents, minimal professional design, no visual clutter." -o slides/02_intro.png --attach slides/01_title.png

# Background slide with multiple citations
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Deep Learning Revolution'. Key milestones: ImageNet breakthrough (2012), transformer architecture (2017), GPT models (2018-present). CITATIONS: Show references at bottom: (Krizhevsky et al., 2012; Vaswani et al., 2017; Brown et al., 2020). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly - same colors, fonts, minimal design." -o slides/03_background.png --attach slides/02_intro.png

# RESULTS SLIDE - Attach actual data figure from working directory
# First, check what figures exist: ls figures/ or ls results/
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Model Performance Results'. Create a slide presenting the attached accuracy chart. Key findings to highlight: 1) 95% accuracy achieved, 2) Outperforms baseline by 12%, 3) Consistent across test sets. CITATIONS: Include at bottom: (Our results, 2025). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly." -o slides/04_results.png --attach slides/03_background.png --attach figures/accuracy_chart.png

# RESULTS SLIDE - Multiple figures comparison
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Before vs After Comparison'. Build a side-by-side comparison slide using the two attached figures. Left: baseline result