Ask HN: Anyone have ideas for an honours thesis project?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5863077

by khay • 13 years ago

6 4 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm currently enrolled in a Bachelor of Computer Science program and will be starting my final year this fall.

We have the opportunity to complete a thesis project or 2 smaller projects but the thesis project is required for an honours degree.

I would like to complete a thesis project but I am having troubles coming up with something to create.

I'm most comfortable with web development, php is my strongest server side language so far I'd say but have experience in others.

I've ordered a Raspberry Pi and have a bunch of electronic parts at my disposal, including XBee RF modules.

I've also scratched the surface of Python and Node.

I'm also not afraid of learning something completely different if it's a cool idea especially since I have the rest of the summer to learn something new.

Any suggestions would be great, even resources you may know of which have some cool ideas or content I may be able to get ideas from.

Thanks in advance!

becauseracecar• 13 years ago

It looks like you have some familiarity with a variety of different technologies which is fantastic.

The most important thing is just to pick a direction and get started. It doesn't have to bee anything more specific than "I want to build something using Raspberry Pi".

Once you pick a direction you can start working through some basic tutorials and learning the ropes. At this point after understanding what's possible you might get some ideas about what you might want to do.

If you don't have ideas yet that's ok, but now you're pretty well equipped to research what other people have been doing with your platform. You could build somewhat different alternatives to existing projects, or work on trying to contribute an extension to an existing project.

If just looking at projects doesn't spark any ideas start talking to people. Start with people who might know something about your topic at your university, or reach out to individuals in the community.

The key to a research project is just getting interested in one idea or question. Once you develop a little curiosity about on little thing it's like pulling on a thread that's connected to a much larger tapestry. Maybe your original idea has already been done but you find something else that's closely related that hasn't been done. You'll quickly be able to follow this tiny thread to a much larger world that will be of great depth and in general can be very interesting. If you have the diligence to carefully review existing work it's not hard to steer yourself to a totally uncharted area (this is probably a lot of work for a senior thesis but if you find it fun then go for it).

Also don't worry too much about originality. Re-creating something that already exists is a good learning experience, and might lead to other interesting ideas, like taking an existing thing and using it for a slightly different purpose. Just make sure to give credit where it's due. This isn't a PHD thesis and I don't think you'll be knocked for not making some brilliant original discovery. The key thing is to get started and follow your curiosity.

khay2• 13 years ago

thanks a lot for giving me some direction, I think I will take your advice, Raspberry Pi included

ProblemFactory• 13 years ago

To keep excitement up over the course of the year, choose something from an area of Computer Science or practical applications that interests you beyond the tools required to solve the problem.

As a resource for cool ideas, there are hundreds at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/acs_projects/#topics (click on the names of the research groups at the bottom of the page). Most of these are intended to be 33% of a year's work at 4-year undergraduate or 1-year masters level.

khay2• 13 years ago

Thanks a lot for the suggestion and resource. My parents have a problem with security at a camp they're building so I figure it may be a good fit. I was thinking a raspberry pi could handle the events while connected to an arduino with a GSM shield to send a text message when a door, window, etc. is opened. I have not decided how exactly this will be handled but I'm looking into it at the moment.