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Final Year CS Project

Started by Thickbrew Jun 25, 2007 at 7:30 AM 6 replies 2k views
Original Post
Thickbrew
Thickbrew
Hi all, I'm currently supposed to be thinking up ideas for my final year project in Computer Science. Actually, the deadline is almost upon me, and I still haven't thought of anything suitable which I know I'll enjoy. And enjoyment of the project is really important to me. I have one or two fallback ideas but I can't honestly say they fully catch my interest. So, I thought I'd ask you guys if there's anything you can suggest. Obviously game programming interests me, so if anybody can think of an interesting concept in that area for me to experiment with as a project, then that would be cool. But otherwise any other suggestions in other areas are also welcome. Perhaps some of you have left-over ideas from when you did your FYP? Any input will be very strongly appreciated as I am really at a loss. Thanks :)
capn_midnight
capn_midnight
Is this a research project, or just a development project? My senior project was a research project. I did original research on possible applications of optical illusions in computer graphics.
Thickbrew
Thickbrew
I am able to do a research project if I like, but I'd prefer to actually develop something. Also, I think my department would prefer this choice based on what I've been told.
capn_midnight
capn_midnight
Well, research doesn't preclude developing something. I wrote an applet-based testing system for my project thta used various different rendering techniques for a single set of data.

If you're just doing something with development, you might consider doing some sort of abstract data visualization. Though they are mostly completely useless (I've yet to seen one that provided a meaningful view of the data itself), they tend to impress.

Or maybe you could download the TIGER/Line data set and build a small RPG based in the real world.
Dovyman
Dovyman
If you are going to go the project route, I'd look to see if your school/industry partners/local businesses have any opportunities of interest (though the chances these relate to gaming may be smaller than if you were willing to do other things). Also if you can, I would advocate a team project, it will probably be more beneficial and it will look good on your resume.

That said, I wouldn't count out a research component - like capn_midnight mentioned it doesn't rule out doing development, and (at least in my mind) its more interesting! You might look in the annals of his journal to get an idea of what such a project is like - IIRC he wrote quite a bit on it.
capn_midnight
capn_midnight
Quote:
Original post by Dovyman
That said, I wouldn't count out a research component - like capn_midnight mentioned it doesn't rule out doing development, and (at least in my mind) its more interesting! You might look in the annals of his journal to get an idea of what such a project is like - IIRC he wrote quite a bit on it.


It all starts here.
capn_midnight
capn_midnight
I actually ended up doing both at different times. My university's computer science program was very software engineering centric. My research project was the optical illusion thing. My development project was with 2 other guys, we built a class room scheduler for the department (it's still in use today). We also had two classes that were larger programming projects, 20 people per team. The first one was a stock tracking package (never worked), and the second was a building floor plan designer (I was in charge of the rendering part, which was the only part that worked). I was also the first person in the department to start programming in C#. I used it to write a scripting language as a demo for my operating systems class. Okay, enough bragging, back to our regularly scheduled program.
Thickbrew
Thickbrew
Thanks for the input guys, it's been helpful. Time to have a read through that journal :)

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