Chapter 182: Presentation
The opening ceremony is fully in English, just like other opening ceremony, there are speeches from certain important people. The most interesting things is probably the video presentation and the dance performances. Other than that, there is nothing much. It even ended earlier than scheduled.
There are a total of 34 teams, 15 is at technology development category, this 15 teams will present first because they will only have 15 minutes slot per presentation. Tomorrow is the big day for technology development category. Even 5 of the judges will change when the research category started their presentation.
The presentation will start from 10.00 am to 12.30 pm for the 1st to 10th team, then 2.00 pm to 3.30 pm 11th to 15th team. Research category will only start their presentation at 3.30 pm, 30 minutes slot per presentation. There are also some who will present tomorrow morning since their schedule will only be until 7.30 pm today. Only 8 teams from the research category will present today, the 11 teams will present tomorrow morning while the technology development team also have their project assessed one more time.
"Ah, time to enjoy the show. I wonder how those rich children will do in their presentation?" Ruby An said when the first team got up the stage as she lean back on the chair, at least the chair is comfortable. Zhou International School will be the 2nd team to present so they already gone from their seat to wait backstage, since this is the first team from their country, everyone look forward to it a bit.
"Zhou International School project is not bad, I guessed they will have a high placement too." Li Jian Yu comment.
"How do you know that?" Wang Yi Lin ask.
"I ask the student from City Bei, they are also doing technology development, he said that their project this year is not as good as Zhou International School." Li Jian Yu said. They all nod a few times, so its like that. They look forward to it much more now.
The presentation for technology development team is relatively simple, since they can't demonstrate their technology here, so they only introduce their project a bit for about 10 minutes, then Q&A session for 2-3 minutes and they are done. Yes, there is a Q&A session for every presentation. For the research category, presentation will be strictly 15 minutes or less, then Q&A session for 10 minutes. It can be seen from here that they put more importance in research category when it comes to the presentation today.
When the multiracial and multi-nationality Zhou International School participant come up the stage, they received a huge applause. Well, Zhou International School really have an interesting combination, they have 4 different nationalities in their 5 people team. The one who is the main presenter is called Isaac Brown, he is a good talker, he reminded Bai Yi Yang of Ruby An who have great sense of humour. Their project is interesting, the presentation is also precise and and engaging, they even able to answers all questions from the judges. Dongfang Liu is indeed not a joke, he was the one who answers 3 questions out of 4. His social life may be problematic, but he is one intelligent kid. When their presentation ended, they received another big round of applause. The loudest from their side, of course, they need to support their national teams no matter what.
"See, I told you." Li Jian Yu said as he continue to clap.
"Indeed not bad. Yi Yang, what do you think?" Ruby An ask. The presentation is very good, if she is the judge, she will give a high mark.
"Good, very good. Only if their overall project mark is as good as their presentation.." Bai Yi Yang sigh. She knows that their projects didn't get very high mark, if they are going to say about technology development category, then Country A team and Country J team have the highest marks, at the 60% range. This information, of course she knows from TongTong who is chatting with her now. Zhou International School only got some 52.5% mark in their overall project. Unless they got perfect 30% from their performance here, then Gold is really difficult to be obtain.
"Can they get a Gold?" Ruby An ask again.
"That, of course I don't know." Bai Yi Yang smile. Zhou International School project is actually quite good at a high school level, but they have a few loopholes if it was brought out to the world, that's why they didn't get very high mark.
The presentation goes on until 12.34 pm when the 10th team finished their presentation. Bai Yi Yang and the rest stretch before getting up their seat, they will have their lunch here, no need to go back to the hotel. The organiser have prepared packed lunch for everyone. Of course they can go back to the hotel if they want, but their team decided not to.
When taking their packed lunch, they also get to know the rest of the national team. The other school from City Zhou is the 22nd presenter for today and the City Shang team will present tomorrow morning. As for the two teams doing technology development, both team had presented this morning, they decided to return to the hotel and make preparation for another big demonstration tomorrow.
"They will be dead tired before it's their turn to present." Ruby An sympathise with the team from City Zhou. That's mean they will be presenting at 6.30 pm.
"That's what I am saying, luckily our turn is earlier." Wang Yi Lin said. Now, they are having lunch at an empty table, not many decided to stay, only those who will be presenting earlier in the afternoon stay back.
Even the two research team from their country decided to go back first. They will return later when it's almost their time to present. As for the City Shang team, they can even skip today presentation and only come tomorrow, but they still decided to come because they wanted to support the other two teams. Indeed, the session in the evening is not as merry as in the morning.
After taking their time with lunch, Sir Austin went out to buy some drinks for them.
"Sir, Starbucks?" Ruby An eyes shine as she ask. After Bai Yi Yang enlighten her with various Starbucks drinks yesterday, she also wanted to try another type of drinks from that shop.
"Yeah, come on." Sir Austin laugh. Ruby An grinned and follow Sir Austin out.
"Text me the drinks you want." Ruby An said to the three of them which Bai Yi Yang reply with an OK sign.
"The weather here is hot, let's get some cold drinks." Bai Yi Yang suggest. Wang Yi Lin and Li Jian Yu agree. So, the three of them look through the list of customised drinks and decided on three different drinks, Bai Yi Yang screenshot it send it to Ruby An.
"You have so many ideas in your brain." Wang Yi Lin said to Bai Yi Yang. Only if the are not on their final year, they will be able to do the same thing with Bai Yi Yang and Ruby An next year. What a pity.
Bai Yi Yang laugh at this and continue to chat with the two of them. She ask them about their final semester preparation, then about the field that they will pursue in the university later. Wang Yi Lin wanted to continue learning science, specifically Chemistry. As for Li Jian Yu, he wanted to pursue engineering, he already have an aim for the university that he wanted to go to.
"Then you really have wasted this spot." Wang Yi Lin said to Li Jian Yu. She is talking about their R&D team, since Li Jian Yu is not going to go to this direction.
"Nope. I found out that this is a golden ticket to enter university, I won't give up this spot." Li Jian Yu said. When they qualified to enter this competition, the certificate of excellent performance is a guarantee, which equal to an excellent university spot if he just do well in his final exam, what more if they get a medal.
"Well..you are right." Wang Yi Lin think for a while and agree. If it were her, she will also grab the opportunity.
"If I know that we will go this far, I would have suggested that we bring in another member. We wasted a spot." Wang Yi Lin said. When they qualified, many if their classmates envy the two of them, only if they also joined the R&D team.
"Yi Yang, next year you must do some kind of interviews okay." Wang Yi Lin said.
"I don't know yet about this matter. Tell this to Ruby and Sir Austin." Bai Yi Yang said. In the coming years, if she need to do this again, then she won't meddle much too. Let other people handle it.
"Don't tell me you won't do this next year? You are so good at this, you must do it again." Li Jian Yu said. If Bai Yi Yang really don't want to do this again, then their school will be really called as a one hit wonder.
"Wait and see." Bai Yi Yang answer and didn't talk about it anymore.
When Sir Austin and Ruby return, they have their drink and have some light discussion. From this morning presentation, they already know the pattern of the presentation, which judges like to ask questions and what type of question, some will ask on the ethical aspect of the project, this question is what trapped a few of the teams. So, they will have to know how to answer this well.
At 1.30 pm, people start coming again and their team also enter the hall one more time. It was quite awkward since they are the only complete team from their country, actually more than half participants is gone, same with the audiences. Even the clapping sound is much more quieter. The two teams only arrived when it was almost 3.30 pm, that's when the research category will start presenting.
There is a 15 minutes break after the last technology development team finished presenting. Then, 5 new judges change and took their seat. Precisely at 3.30 pm, the 16th team which is the first team from research category start their presentation. Everyone from the research category start paying attention, this is 20% they are talking about here, this mark can decide their final result.
The rest of Bai Yi Yang team members also become much more serious. They listen carefully to the presentation from other team and also the Q&A session. The Q&A session with the technology development team seems to be a warm up, when it comes to the research team, the questions is much more difficult and the judges is much more strict. There are also much kore questions than usual, if they can't answer in 10 second or so, the judges will move on and pass it to the next person.
This sends a chill to their team, the other two teams look tense but they seems to be experienced so they weren't as nervous as the rest of Bai Yi Yang team.
"Don't worry, if you can't answer it I will answer." Bai Yi Yang said in a low voice towards her teammates. The Q&A session will involve everyone, that's why everyone is a bit nervous. Of course as long as someone in the group know how to answer it, it will be fine, its just that it won't look good if the other doesn't answer even a single question.
When the second team is halfway finished with their presentation, the four of them was called backstage. Sir Austin already give them a speech to lift up their spirit, its just that there wasn't much effect, which is entirely normal.
When the second team is at the end of their Q&A session, Ruby An looks pale and her hand is trembling a bit. It's ridiculous, this is not her first time coming up the stage, but why does she feel this nervous?
"Ruby, hey Ruby." Bai Yi Yang hold Ruby An and shake it a bit.
"Huh?" Ruby An looks a bit blank at the moment.
"Can you do me a favour? It's a bit boring upstage now, only you can save it now, start by lifting up the mood a bit. Everyone will appreciate it." Bai Yi Yang laugh softly.
This is to encourage Ruby An. Ruby An is an excellent speaker, it's just that she have less confidence in this because this isn't her specialty, she is just spooked by those scientific questions asked by the judges. Actually, they all can do well, they are not scientist yet, so Ruby An can just act like how she usually is, as long as she knows what she is presenting about, that is enough.
"Okay. Leave it to me." Ruby An mouth open at first, she is initially confuse with Bai Yi Yang request until she realised what Bai Yi Yang meaning. She smile and quickly give Bai Yi Yang and Wang Yi Lin a hug. When the second team finished, she step onto the stage with big confident smile with the mic in hand.
"You did well." Wang Yi Lin pat Bai Yi Yang on the shoulder.
When Ruby An started the presentation, she make a small joke which makes the audience laugh and start paying attention back to the stage. Even the judges seems to be more relaxed now. Ruby An part was intended to be engaging to the general audience, when Ruby An explain some things, the audience will go 'ooh', 'wow' and so on. Even Bai Yi Yang can't make their research sounds that interesting and amazing.
Bai Yi Yang go on the stage when Ruby An called her name. Bai Yi Yang presentation is what will really attract the judges, even though it will be least interesting towards the audiences. Of course, Bai Yi Yang made a lot of alteration from the time they did a mock presentation at school, the graphs is more colourful, the interface become much more visually pleasing and there are less words in it, instead, she make a footnotes for the people who know how to read the graphs while she is presenting. She speak clearly and precisely, presenting the evidence that their research is really a successful one. As a result, they finished their presentation in 13 minutes. They received a big applause, maybe the loudest applause out if the many presentation this evening.
There is a timekeeping at the end of the judges table, it shows there that they have 12 minutes for Q&A session. Li Jian Yu and Wang Yi Lin quickly come up the stage to join Bai Yi Yang and Ruby An. Since they have a few more minutes, the judges also relax when it was the Q&A session.
Each judges will praise their presentation before asking their questions. These questions has been expected by Bai Yi Yang and Sir Austin who have a lot if experience in presenting their research, so basically everyone in their team have answers a few questions. Even Li Jian Yu who have awkward English accent also answered 2 questions, he was struggling with a few words but the judges is quite kind to them, they even encourage Li Jian Yu. As for the unexpected and more difficult questions, it was Bai Yi Yang who answered it. These type of questions are the one that even if they can't answer it, it is fine, but Bai Yi Yang easily answer them, totally an eye opener.
So, their presentation ended very successfully. Sir Austin who waited backstage hug his students with teary eyes. He stated how moved he was when they were presenting and much more when they were able to answer all the questions, he even pat Li Jian Yu shoulder a few time, full of praises.