Teen reporters Sadie Cruz and Nia Ashley conducted lots of interviews with speakers at the TEDYouth conference on November 17. Their Q&As will run on the TED Blog over the next few weeks. Below, an interview conducted by Nia.

The Flight Director of the Mars Curiosity Mission, Bobak Ferdowsi, is best known for landing a two-ton rover on Mars. But “Mohawk Guy,” as he’s called by his thousands of Internet followers, is also famed for representing the uniqueness of NASA.

He sat down with me the night before his TEDYouth talk to discuss Mars, his unexpected celebrity and how soon I can hope to report to the USS Enterprise.

Nia Ashley: So, you led a mission on Mars. That’s kind of awesome. Can you talk about that for a second?

Bobak Ferdowsi: I worked on the Mars Science Lab Curiosity Mission. It’s been about nine years for me. I ended up as Flight Director for crews and landing operations. I don’t know, it’s kind of the coolest thing I’ve ever done.

NA: What does a flight director do?

BF: Basically, we have this responsibility to make sure that the activities that we’re executing are safe for the spacecraft, to make sure we understand the consequences if something goes wrong. What are our outs? What are we going to do? And then I work with the team, both when they design the activity and when they execute the activity, to make sure that we have all those bases covered.

NA: What if you had dropped [the rover] and it had just bounced and flipped over on its back like a turtle?

BF: That would have been the end of the game, I guess. There’s no way to turn it back right side up once it’s on Mars.

NA: So, what is your typical day, now that the flight happened?

BF: Basically, activities fall into two categories. We have activities based on what happened the day before — like, we discovered a rock and we want to go investigate the rock. But we also have activities that we know we want to do in a month or so — like, we want to try drilling on Mars. So we want to understand: what are all the interactions that have to happen there? Part of what I’m working on right now is making sure those activities are all ready to go when the time comes.

NA: Why do you think that we on Earth are so obsessed with finding life on other planets?

BF: I think it’s such a natural human endeavor to understand: what is our place in the universe? We have this amazing planet, and all this amazing stuff going on around us, but where does that fit into the scheme of things? Other planets, they’re not so different from us, and you think, “What if there’s life? What if it’s like us? What might be different?”

It’s hard because we have one data point: I live on the Earth. Arguably, we have a lot of data about that one point, but then you’re trying to understand: Would life [on other planets] be more intelligent than us? Does it ever really get past bacteria? What is it going to look like? It’s a slow process of scientific understanding.

NA: You are an Internet sensation. Do you appreciate the fact that you’ve made science cool? Or is it, “I have a job to do?”

BF: I love my job, so I focus on that, but I am excited about bringing attention to what I think is a really cool job. I love that people see me as looking different — which I actually don’t! This is what most engineers and scientists look like nowadays. The perception is dated, so it’s cool for kids to see that and to realize, you can be your own person. It takes all sorts of types and looks and everything else to get these missions to happen. We had 3,000 people on this project — a variety of backgrounds, both educationally and culturally and everything. And it’s cool that that’s been shown in a new light.

NA: What do you think is more likely: Martians or life on one of the Galilean moons, like Europa or Titan?

BF: Tough question. I’m a big fan of Europa. I love Mars, I think it’s really amazing, but we’ve been there and it doesn’t look like there’s life there.  Europa is kind of shrouded in mystery, like Mars was in the early days. Ice moon, very likely ocean in the center, it’s warmer, volcanic – and we know that life exists on the Earth at the very bottom of the ocean near these volcanic vents. So it seems like the possibility is there for life to exist.

NA: How close are we to Star Trek? Because that’s what I want.

BF: I think we’re a ways away from Star Trek. But one of the cool things about Star Trek that I loved, and I think it’s still true, is that we are increasingly moving towards international cooperation in all that we do. We’re not going to have warp drive, probably, or transporters anytime soon, but the idea that all these countries are coming together, it’s a planetary endeavor to explore space, I think we’re getting there pretty fast.

NA: If you could meet your teenage self today, what’s something that you would tell them?

BF: It gets better? No, you know, it’s so funny, but as a sort of nerdy person, you feel a little ostracized as a kid, and yet we’re living in this era now where it’s okay to be nerdy. In fact, it’s kind of more relevant and cool. It gives me hope. I would have told my teenage self that. Like, “Listen, in 10 years you’re going to love that you read all this sci-fi. In your room. Without any friends.”

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Curious about Bobak Ferdowsi’s favorite TED Talks? Check out his playlist, “On our home in the universe” >>

Melissa Marshall has a message for scientists and engineers: Contrary to popular belief, the general public is interested in your work and does want to hear the details of your research. The trick is that you must communicate your ideas clearly, because they will start snoring in their seats if you assault them with a slew of jargon and details they’re not prepared to understand.

See, Marshall is a communications teacher. And as she explains in this talk from TEDGlobal 2012 University, she was asked several years ago to teach a communications class for engineering students. The experience highlighted for her that the ability to speak clearly does not come part and parcel with the ability to do great technical work.

“Our scientists and engineers are the ones tackling our grandest challenges from energy, to environment, to healthcare, among others. But if we don’t know about it and understand it, then the work isn’t done,” says Marshall in her talk. “So scientists and engineers, please talk nerdy to us. … Make sure that we can see your science is sexy and that your engineering is engaging.”

To hear Marshall’s mathematical formula for solving this problem, watch her wonderful 4-minute talk. Below, Marshall gives more detail on six specific strategies that scientists and engineers can use while preparing to share their work outside their field.

Here’s what Marshall had to say:

1.     Be aware of your audience.

To successfully communicate, a scientist or engineer must analyze their audience.  It is critical that you understand the background, knowledge base, interests and biases of your audience so that you can adapt your content to them.  Often, I will hear that the science needs to be “dumbed down.” I think this is a flawed perspective that doesn’t place enough emphasis on the responsibility of the speaker to communicate clearly.  As speakers, we have to respect our audience — we need them on our side!  You can clearly communicate your science without compromising the ideas.

2.     Show the relevance.

It is important to establish early on why your work is relevant to your audience.  If you don’t tell them why it matters to them, it is much harder to maintain their attention.  Look for opportunities where you can create connections from your work to the everyday lives and experiences of your audience.

When crafting the language of your talk, an excellent technique is to anticipate the questions your audience will ask and then use those questions to frame the content you will cover.  This creates an instant connection between you and the audience because the audience perceives you as being invested in their understanding of the talk. When you see points where the audience may scratch their head, verbally acknowledge this with a, “So you might be wondering at this point … .” This makes the audience feel as though you are relating to their needs.

3.     Paint a picture.

Examples, stories and analogies really help an audience to engage with your scientific content. The employment of these strategies can often be the difference between a good presentation and a great one. Examples and stories help technical information to “come alive” for an audience.

Meanwhile, analogies are one of the most powerful speech strategies available to a presenter of science as they anchor a complex technical idea to a concept that the audience already understands. When you use an analogy, you are using the audience’s prior knowledge to explain your concept. This is a much deeper form of learning. The retention of concepts explained with analogies is greater because the listener’s brain already has a place to file that information instead of having to create an entirely new file from scratch. Check out Brian Cox’s TEDTalk on the Large Hadron Collider to see some great analogies in action!

4.     Make numbers meaningful.

There are many occasions in scientific presentations where the speaker must discuss elements of size and amount.  Sometimes an audience might not fully appreciate the significance of a raw number or measurement. Your information can really stand out if you provide context. By making a number relevant to what they already know, you are making that information much more meaningful and, most importantly, memorable.  One great example of this was Robert Ballard’s TEDTalk introduction when he said that the funding received by NASA was enough to fund the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration for 1600 years.  What a powerful way to communicate that number!

5.     Banish bullet points.

When a speaker uses text-heavy, bulleted slides, it can lead to cognitive overload — otherwise known as Death by PowerPoint. Whether words are spoken or written, they are processed in the same part of the brain. Since a talk itself is composed of words, when a presenter has slides that are primarily text, the audience will often only read the slides or only listen to the presenter. Additionally, bullets do not show connections or relationships between the content being presented. As a result, it is difficult for the audience to determine the most important information on the slide. This issue is magnified in a scientific presentation that contains challenging content.

As a presenter, consider if traditional slide design is in fact the best method. We can do so much better than bullets! One alternative strategy I recommend is called Assertion-Evidence slide design. Research has shown that it is more understandable, memorable and persuasive. Assertion-Evidence slide design is characterized by a concise, complete sentence headline (no longer than 2 lines) that states the main assertion (i.e. what you want the audience to know). The body of the slide then consists of visual evidence for that assertion (charts, graphs, images, equations, etc.).

Some other excellent strategies and resources for presentation and slide design are available from my Penn State collaborator Michael Alley, as well as from Nancy Duarte, Cliff Atkinson and Garr Reynolds.  These resources should be on the bookshelf of every presenter of science.

6.     Deliver dynamically.

Audiences have high expectations when it comes to delivery!  While content is always the most important factor in any scientific presentation, the impact of delivery style is not to be underestimated. Think back to some of the best presentations that you have seen. No doubt that in addition to compelling content, the presentation had other outstanding qualities.  Just think about the amazing delivery of Jill Bolte Taylor’s iconic TEDTalk.

The biggest must: Energy and enthusiasm for what you are presenting. Audiences connect with passionate speakers, so allow that to come through in your delivery.  Hans Rosling is a great example of a presenter with enthusiasm for the data being presented.

Although it is crucial that your delivery is natural for you, that doesn’t mean that you are stuck with whatever currently happens when you step on a stage. It takes practice to develop a natural and effective style. Many presenters feel that because they are so nervous that they can never be “one of those” presenters who seems comfortable in front of an audience. They resign themselves to just surviving their presentations instead of trying to thrive within them. With practice, most presenters, regardless of nervousness, can dramatically improve their delivery style.  Every effective presenter has worked very hard to become that way — encouraging news, because this means that if you are willing to put in the effort, you too can significantly improve. Amy Cuddy’s recent TEDTalk on “power posing” provides some great advice on how to feel more confident before delivering a talk!

In this short talk from TEDxCooperUnion, bioengineer (and TED Fellow) Nina Tandon talks about her experiment in using TED Conversations as a teaching tool in a tissue engineering class — inspiring students to ask bigger questions online, and engage with a broad community to create wide-ranging discussions about biology, ethics, perception and much more … Read more about Nina’s TEDinClass experiment >>