Sample Ideas for Projects
- Computer Engineering
- Architectural Simulators -- compare performance (which could be in run
time, memory usage, CPU utilization, etc.) under various
configurations, or compare the results of different simulators. Some
examples of such simulators are:
- Wireless networking -- compare performance under different
protocols and different conditions
- Bioinformatics
- Proteomics simulation -- tools such as random sequence
simulators can be used to help discover structure. Alignment and
modeling can be done with Hidden Markov Models. Various sorts of
projects could be built around tools such as these:
- Computer Games
- Compare initial configurations or different strategies to see
either how best to succeed or to check if the game is well-balanced.
Games should not involve more than one human player. Actually, if it
can be configured to run with only computer players, simulation will
be easier and much more consistent. Some single quantitative measure
of success needs to be picked, such as amount of gold at the end, or
time to conquer the world. Whatever you tell friends or parents, as
far as the time commitment to this course is concerned, the time
spent playing the games does not count as "work".
- Aeronautical Engineering
- Compare jet engine efficiency under different conditions or for
different designs of engines
- Baseball
- How do curveballs work? Try to predict how far from the center
a pitch will be as a function of speed, spin, angle, etc.
- Here is a web page of possible experiments relating ball
speed and angle to distance, and the simulator page