Any suggestions for my science fair topic?
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Yeah, what the title says. Maybe something related to computing sciences or engineering (no biology, definitely not). Something that I can do in 2-3 months (realistically), and something complex enough that I won't look like a total idiot. :laugh: Can anyone offer anything better than a comparison of methods used for curve fitting and seeing which one works better? (which sounds pretty lame, IMHO).
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Yeah, what the title says. Maybe something related to computing sciences or engineering (no biology, definitely not). Something that I can do in 2-3 months (realistically), and something complex enough that I won't look like a total idiot. :laugh: Can anyone offer anything better than a comparison of methods used for curve fitting and seeing which one works better? (which sounds pretty lame, IMHO).
SkyNet? A BASIC interpreter?
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SkyNet? A BASIC interpreter?
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Yeah, what the title says. Maybe something related to computing sciences or engineering (no biology, definitely not). Something that I can do in 2-3 months (realistically), and something complex enough that I won't look like a total idiot. :laugh: Can anyone offer anything better than a comparison of methods used for curve fitting and seeing which one works better? (which sounds pretty lame, IMHO).
A program that crawls the web to find words and expressions that might be used in a password, which will then be used to crack passwords. You could compare that to other techniques, such as other brute force techniques (combination/permutations, word dictionary lookup, etc.). An analysis of hard drive write/read speed depending on the location of the file on the hard drive and the level of fragmentation present (other variables are possible, such as file size and number of files). You might even compare different file systems. This has probably been done before, but you might be able to put a different or more practical "spin" on this subject. A program that explores various novel methods of image/video compression, perhaps comparing them against existing techniques. I have a couple ideas, but they would take a while to explain and I'll leave the exploration in this area to you. Here are some keywords to get your creative juices flowing (note that I made up a lot of these terms): voronoi, edge detection, shape recognition, convex polygon wrapping, tolerance levels, lossless, lossy, color space choice/shifting, variable targeted precision, multidimensional differences, patterns with patterns, statistical analysis, implicit exclusion, perceptual importance, hierarchical specification. Trying various techniques to attempt to burn out different hardware (such as DVD drives). Perhaps create a program that constantly reads and writes to a CD-RW until the drive fails. Devise your own indicators of failure (begins to write bad data, tray won't open, etc.). Compare different brands or different operations (write, rewrite, read). You might do the flip side and test various media (see how well different brands of DVD+R's can be written without producing coasters). Good luck!
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
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A program that crawls the web to find words and expressions that might be used in a password, which will then be used to crack passwords. You could compare that to other techniques, such as other brute force techniques (combination/permutations, word dictionary lookup, etc.). An analysis of hard drive write/read speed depending on the location of the file on the hard drive and the level of fragmentation present (other variables are possible, such as file size and number of files). You might even compare different file systems. This has probably been done before, but you might be able to put a different or more practical "spin" on this subject. A program that explores various novel methods of image/video compression, perhaps comparing them against existing techniques. I have a couple ideas, but they would take a while to explain and I'll leave the exploration in this area to you. Here are some keywords to get your creative juices flowing (note that I made up a lot of these terms): voronoi, edge detection, shape recognition, convex polygon wrapping, tolerance levels, lossless, lossy, color space choice/shifting, variable targeted precision, multidimensional differences, patterns with patterns, statistical analysis, implicit exclusion, perceptual importance, hierarchical specification. Trying various techniques to attempt to burn out different hardware (such as DVD drives). Perhaps create a program that constantly reads and writes to a CD-RW until the drive fails. Devise your own indicators of failure (begins to write bad data, tray won't open, etc.). Compare different brands or different operations (write, rewrite, read). You might do the flip side and test various media (see how well different brands of DVD+R's can be written without producing coasters). Good luck!
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
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Yeah, what the title says. Maybe something related to computing sciences or engineering (no biology, definitely not). Something that I can do in 2-3 months (realistically), and something complex enough that I won't look like a total idiot. :laugh: Can anyone offer anything better than a comparison of methods used for curve fitting and seeing which one works better? (which sounds pretty lame, IMHO).
An application which tracks horse genealogy determining if the qualities and traits valued by breeders actually result in a horse that is more likely to win a race. Determine the quality of the available data - if you include influences on the horses performance (only had three legs, etc). Use this to justify your putting your life savings (10 maybe 20 bucks) on the nose. (Conclusion) Or not.
Candy: Here's the plan: we changes our names, move to a distant island, and disguise ourselves as a family of traveling donkey polishers.
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An application which tracks horse genealogy determining if the qualities and traits valued by breeders actually result in a horse that is more likely to win a race. Determine the quality of the available data - if you include influences on the horses performance (only had three legs, etc). Use this to justify your putting your life savings (10 maybe 20 bucks) on the nose. (Conclusion) Or not.
Candy: Here's the plan: we changes our names, move to a distant island, and disguise ourselves as a family of traveling donkey polishers.
Ha, that reminds me of the movie Pi. If I remember correctly, he was trying to come up with an algorithm that could predict stock market behavior (or maybe that was another movie). Anyway, yeah, that's a good idea. The more general form: using computers to scour data to determine if the typical qualities actually indicate desired results. You might apply this to other fields as well. For example, if you can get your hands on a list of criminals and attributes about them, you might correlate violent behavior with certain parental structures (although, not sure if that type of data is available to the public). Something to consider is if there is something you would like to predict (the result of a horse race, if a person is going to commit a crime). Just need to make sure you can find something with available data or where the data can be created in a short enough duration (within a few months).
DABBee wrote:
your life savings (10 maybe 20 bucks)
Hey, that's nothing to scoff at. I'm currently several thousand dollars in debt, so my life savings is actually in the negative.
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.