Ideas For Relevant Technology Projects For College Students
I have been a web developer for over 20 years. The industry is rapidly changing due to AI but there are still many opportunities, probably even more opportunities going forward. Here are some college project sized ideas. These projects are not so important for the value you create (you will be unlikely to develop the next Facebook while in college) but you can learn a lot.
You can get a lot out of watching YouTube videos for how to do each of these projects. I recommend finding a video or blog post and follow along in your own code editor and copy exactly what they are doing. Don't try to get fancy. In a few hours you can have a finished project. Also shop for learning libraries and courses to take. $300 a year sounds like a lot for access to courses but it is cheaper than most universities and you will have access to cutting edge materials, not what your professors learned 20 years ago like ordering linked lists.
Work on these projects with the mindset that they are disposable. That way you don't get fixated on an idea for a long time without producing anything (like I have done in the past). You are better off completing 5 simple projects than getting 80% done on one overly ambitious project. You will learn a lot from each project and they will act like "idea mulch" as you will find connections between your interests.
Write a blog post on each of these discoveries. Not to become an "internet guru" but the process of writing a blog post or creating a video for YouTube or Twitch will make you much better. Also, as you write blog posts you will become better at writing and expressing yourself.
Good luck!
1. Build a website using no-code like bubble
Even though you may want to write code (aka solve problems) there are many no-code tools available. This could be for another project or a home for a personal website. "No code" development is the present and future. Some people have a fantasy that "everyone can build apps" just like turning on the TV. I doubt this will be the case anytime soon but you should be one of the people that understands how to use these tools.
2. Develop a smart contract on Etherium
https://www.web3.university/tracks/create-a-smart-contract/deploy-your-first-smart-contract
Smart contracts and the concepts behind them will be important to know. There are many "hello world" tutorials on how to do this. Put this on your github account. If you are interested in this you can quickly become an "expert" because very few people have been doing this for more than a few years. You can also get familiar with the dozens of apps/systems that are used to do this.
3. Set up and use a Git account (github or similar)
"Everyone" uses Git. There is a learning curve. For most development jobs you will be expected to know how to use it. You can write a blog post about how to use GIT. Yes, there are a million blogs on how to do this but the process of writing a blog post is college-project sized.
You should know how to make feature branches, do pull requests, branch, merge. Learn the command line and a graphic tool if you want like Source Tree.
4. Write a Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
This is huge as companies automate repetitive knowledge worker tasks. Be able to log into gmail and maybe respond to emails from different people.
5. Learn how to write automated front end tests
There is a large demand for people that know how to do this and it is difficult to hire people to do this well.
6. Integrate an API into a website.
You can stream a twitter feed to a page on your website (see #1). There are lots of tutorials of how to get this to work.
7. Bonus: integrate the same API using Python, PHP, and Node
You will encounter all of these languages at some point and it is good to learn their strengths and weaknesses.
8. Create a SQL database
Follow some prompts and create a simple "store" with users, orders, products, addresses, etc. SQL is widely used.
9. Subscribe to a learning library and use it
I use Packt which is great for books and pretty cheap at around $10 a month. O'reily is also a good one, Udemy, etc. A subscription lets you dive deep and have access to dozens of books on the same topic. Try them out and look for black friday deals where you can lock in huge discounts (70% or more!) for a long time.
10. Finish a "big data" project using R and Python
Again, find a tutorial that will walk you through this. There are lots of open source data sets like weather and traffic and many learning projects for how to get this done.
11. deploy a project to one or more cloud providers
This can be Azure, AWS, digital ocean, etc. AWS and Azure are really overwhelming with what they provide. Learning to do one relatively simple thing will help you understand how they work.
12. Take a series of courses on Linux (using the terminal)
You don't necessarily need to become a wizard but you should know how to use at least one text editor fairly well (Vi or Nano. Vi is fairly universal). Lean how to use Grep, move files, find files, edit files, HTOP. Learn how to install packages and run programs. Learn SSH.
You will get exposure to this by doing some of the other things on this list but in a few hours with a good course on linux fundamentals you can become a pretty good Linux user.
13. Take a course in how to use an IDE
Visual Studio Code is very popular and free to use. I pay for JetBrains IDE because they are really good. A good IDE will help you write better code. Learn how to use it for formatting, shortcuts, git integration, etc.
14. Use GitHub CoPilot and ChatGPT and similar to help you write code
Tell it to write a unit test for a function that you paste in, etc. Learn to use these tools. Learn what to do when they give you the wrong code.
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