This workshop will help you come up with some ideas for personal projects/capstones.
No ideas are 'wrong' when it comes to brainstorming. Sometimes the crazy/weird ideas that get thrown out during a brainstorming session can actually hit the mark in some way and turn into a more robust & refined idea upon reflection. As such, the goal of this section is simply to come up with as many ideas as you can (within reason). Don't worry about feasability or fully fleshing out the ideas at this point.
Come up with 3-5 ideas (or more) that solve a problem or improve a process that you engage with in your daily life. Ideas can be related to what you do in your personal time, passions, hobbies, work/school life, etc. The key point is that these ideas would solve a problem that is meaningful to YOU as an individual.
- NOTE: If you are struggling to come up with idea, start listing things that you LIKE TO DO or that you HAVE TO DO in your daily life to get the juices flowing. You can also think about what your friends/loved ones might benefit from having.
- NOTE: If you already have an idea/know what you want to do for your capstone, come up with a couple alternates and then start fleshing out with features, techs, user stories, etc.
Ideas:
Come up with 3-5 technologies (or more) that you are interested in and curious about. It's ok if you don't know anything about them right now. The goal is to identify tech that excites you, so that you can build an idea around that technology later. Again, don't worry about feasability or fully fleshing out the ideas at this point. Examples: VR, AR, Gaming, IoT, AI/Machine Learning, new languages, new frameworks, etc.
- NOTE: If you already have an idea/know what you want to do for your capstone, come up with a couple alternates and then start fleshing out with features, techs, user stories, etc.
Techs:
Pair up with someone near you and take turns going through your lists, and bouncing ideas off of each other. Remember, there are no 'wrong' or 'bad' ideas here, so be respectful. The goal is to narrow your lists/hone in on good candidates for your capstone project.
Instructor led group discussion of ideas, technologies, etc. building off of what you discussed with your pair partner.
Now that you have some personal ideas and tech you're interested in, it's time to start refining them. First, see if there is any overlap between the tech you're into and the personal ideas you have. If there's overlap, awesome; you're on your way to a project. If not, that is totally fine; start thinking of tech that can help your personal ideas or developing ideas that fit the tech you want to use. Once you have 2-3 ideas you want to develop more, start thinking about what kind of features that idea would require. Try to come up with at least 5 features for each idea.
Idea 1 Features:
Idea 2 Features:
Idea 3 Features:
Examine your feature lists and evaluate how you feel about each project idea. Some questions to ask yourself:
- Does the idea make you excited?
- Is the idea feasible for a capstone (can it meet requirements)?
- Does it serve some purpose/solve some problem (however large or small)?
- Is it something you want to exist in the world?
- Is it something others would benefit from having access to?
- Is it something you can imagine spending 10 consecutive days working on?