scientific-slides

Scientific Slides - AI-driven Academic Presentation Generation Skill

Skill Overview

Scientific Slides is a skill designed for researchers that automatically generates high-quality conference talks, seminar presentations, and thesis defense slides via the Nano Banana Pro AI. It supports multiple output formats including PDF and PowerPoint.

Applicable Scenarios

1. Academic Conference Presentations

When preparing a 10–20 minute conference talk, Scientific Slides helps you quickly generate a well-structured, visually professional presentation. The skill provides conference-specific templates, guides you to streamline content and highlight core findings, and ensures you convey key messages within a limited time.

2. Thesis and Dissertation Defenses

For 45–60 minute PhD/Master thesis defenses, the skill provides a complete presentation structure—from research background and methodology to results and discussion—covering every aspect the defense committee will focus on, helping you handle academic questioning with confidence.

3. Academic Seminars and Journal Clubs

For 45–60 minute in-depth academic talks or journal club discussions, the skill supports detailed methodology displays, multi-study result presentation, and critical analysis, helping build academic reputation and facilitate peer exchange.

Core Features

1. AI-generated Presentation Slides

Integrated with the Nano Banana Pro AI engine, the skill can automatically generate complete slide images from natural language descriptions. It supports two workflows: generating PDF slides directly (recommended) or generating editable PowerPoint image assets. By appending the previous slide as a reference, it ensures a consistent style and coordinated color scheme across the deck.

2. Visualization-first Design Guidance

Provides a complete academic presentation design guide emphasizing a "let visuals speak" philosophy to avoid dry, text-heavy slides. The skill includes color-pairing suggestions, typography standards, and data visualization techniques to help create presentations that are both professional and engaging.

3. Integration of Research Citations

Deep integration with the research-lookup skill allows automatic retrieval and integration of relevant literature, adding authoritative academic context and comparative studies to your slides. It supports inserting citations directly into slides to enhance academic rigor and persuasiveness.

4. Multi-format Support and Template Library

Offers dual support for LaTeX Beamer and PowerPoint, with built-in templates for conference talks, academic seminars, thesis defenses, and more. Beamer templates are suited for formula-heavy talks, while PowerPoint templates support company branding customization and complex animations.

5. Presentation Validation and Quality Checks

Provides automated scripts to validate quality metrics such as slide count, file size, and font readability, and supports converting presentations to images for visual review to ensure a professional final output.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I quickly make slides for an academic conference talk?

Use the Nano Banana Pro workflow in Scientific Slides: first plan the title, key points, and visual elements for each slide, then generate slide images one by one with the generate_slide_image.py script, and finally merge them into a complete presentation with slides_to_pdf.py. It’s recommended to prepare about 1 slide per minute; a 15-minute talk typically needs roughly 15–18 slides.

Can AI automatically generate research presentations?

Yes. Scientific Slides uses Nano Banana Pro AI; simply describe the slide content and style requirements (e.g., "dark blue background, white text, minimalist design") and the AI will generate complete slide images. By appending the previous slide as a reference, you can ensure a consistent style across the deck.

What should thesis defense slides include?

A thesis defense presentation should include: title and personal information, research background and problem statement, literature review, research methods, core results (40–50% of the time), discussion and significance, conclusions and contributions, acknowledgments and contact information. The skill provides complete defense templates and structural guidance.

What’s the difference between academic and commercial presentations?

Academic presentations emphasize research rigor and literature support, requiring full methodology and data presentation and using citations to establish academic credibility; commercial presentations focus more on product value and market impact. Scientific Slides is designed specifically for academic scenarios, highlighting research context, data visualization, and scholarly dialogue.

Which is better for academic talks: LaTeX Beamer or PowerPoint?

Both have advantages. Beamer excels at mathematical formulas, algorithm displays, and version control, making it suitable for theory-heavy talks; PowerPoint supports complex animations, interactive elements, and corporate template customization, making it suitable for experimental research and enterprise environments. Scientific Slides supports both formats so you can choose based on your needs.

How do I integrate research citations into academic slides?

Use the skill’s integrated research-lookup function to retrieve relevant papers and include citations directly in your slide prompts (e.g., "Citation: Smith et al., 2023"). Nano Banana Pro will display citations in small font at the bottom of slides. It’s recommended to cite 3–5 background papers and 3–5 comparative studies during the talk.

How many slides does a 15-minute conference talk need?

A common rule of thumb is 1 slide per minute; a 15-minute talk is recommended to have 15–18 slides. Complex charts may take 2–3 minutes, and simple transition slides 15–30 seconds. Focus heavily on the results section (40–50% of the time) and keep methods and background concise.

How do I design a professional academic presentation?

Follow Scientific Slides’ design principles: use modern color schemes (avoid the default blue-gray theme), use large font sizes (body text 24–28 pt), keep one core idea per slide, add high-quality charts and icons, ensure 40–50% whitespace, and maintain a consistent visual style across the deck. The skill provides a full design guide and color-pairing suggestions.