All technical paper sessions at ICRA 2017 will have the same organization: a brief 5-minute spotlight talk for all papers in the session, and immediately after the last spotlight speaker, an interactive session of 35 minutes held in the same session room. An illustration of the sequence is shown below.

Technical Session Timetable
Total session time: 75 mins
Spotlight Talk Speaker 1 5 mins
Speaker 2 5 mins
Speaker 3 5 mins
Speaker 4 5 mins
Speaker 5 5 mins
Speaker 6 5 mins
Speaker 7 5 mins
Speaker 8 5 mins
Interactive Session All speakers 35 mins

The session room layout will be one of the following types (A, B or C) as shown below. There will be student volunteers in each session room to help as needed with the spotlight talks and interactive sessions. A speaker preparation area will also be set up in room Lotus Junior 4E, for speakers to prepare for their presentations and make last minute changes if needed. View floorplans and location of rooms.


All three TRO sessions at ICRA 2017 will have the same organization: a 12-minute oral presentation, followed by a 3-minute Q&A session for each paper.

Room Type A

  • 4211-4212
  • 4311-4312
  • 4411-4412
  • 4511-4512
  • 4611-4612
  • 4711-4712
  • 4811-4812
  • 4911-4912

Room Type B

  • 4613-4713
  • 4813-4913

Room Type C

  • 4011
  • 4111

The Spotlight Talk

Please arrive in the session room at least five minutes before the session begins and be sure to let the session chairs know you are there. All speakers should sit near the respective podium A or B since we will have very little time for the transitions. Podium A is used by odd numbered speakers and Podium B is used by even numbered speakers. Please bring your own laptops and any adapters required. VGA and audio connection will be provided for your computer. It is recommended that your slide size is in the standard (4:3) ratio and not widescreen (16:9).

Each speaker will be allocated a total of 5 minutes for their spotlight talk. After five minutes, the spotlight will shift to the next speaker, whose microphone will become live. There will also be a 5-minute countdown timer to aid the speaker in keeping track of time. Please set the computer screen resolution for your computer to 1024 × 768 for the best result.

Preparation Suggestions:

  • PRACTICE! You will need to practise a number of times to get your message across effectively in only five minutes.
  • Your presentation is an advertisement for your paper, so focus on insights rather than details.
  • Avoid spending too much time on related work.
  • Consider giving an application/motivation of your work, the main result, and one piece of technical "meat" (e.g., a theorem, a design principle, an equation, etc.) that will help the audience understand the methodology and the depth of the work, understanding that there will not be time for all the details.
  • You can see examples of spotlight talks here and here. Note that you have 2 more minutes extra this year to pitch about your research as compared to the previous years.

The Interactive Session

The interactive portion of the session will be held in the same room as the spotlight talk and will begin immediately after the last spotlight talk. It will last 35 minutes. You will present at the allocated space as shown below, which corresponds to the order in which you spoke in the spotlight talk. For example, if you were the first speaker you will present at TV booth #1 (denoted as speaker 1), and if you were the third speaker you will present at TV booth #3 (denoted as speaker 3). Each booth will be equipped with a 40” TV and shelf to place your laptop, with both HDMI and VGA connections available. It is recommended that your slide size for the interactive session is in widescreen (16:9) ratio to fit the 40” TV screens, and not standard (4:3) ratio as for the spotlight talk. Please bring your own laptops and any adapters required.

At least one of the paper authors must be available at the assigned space to present their paper during the entire interactive session. If you have more than one author for your paper, then we recommend you have both authors at your interactive station. This allows one author to walk around and talk to other authors of the other papers while the second author presents the work. If there are people waiting to talk to you, limit your discussion with any one attendee. Schedule a time later to get together to discuss in more detail.

You should have several slides prepared that get into the details, but do not plan to give full 15-minute one-way talks. The format of the interactive session should encourage lively discussions between paper authors and audience members. The format of the interactive session is not to repeat the same 15-minute one-way talk over and over until the end of the session.