One place to start might be to "mirror" some of the sprints happening in Dublin, which you can see at https://docs.google.com/a/acquia.com/spreadsheets/d/1eitbzBlGFqy1OBnx830Grix1djwcA2zaCoC-X7EOylY/edit?usp=drive_web (and even register your folks interest in sprinting remotely on the given days, just be mindful of the timezone difference :)).
Some "hot topics" I'm aware of atm are (also see http://drupal.org/core/roadmap for more):
Usability
Current priorities are at http://drupalux.org/sprint, a full list of issues is under the "Usability" tag. A lot of these just need someone with some front-end chops (CSS/JS) to push them over the finish line.