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Ideas for High School Computer Club Activities?

Posted by Cliff on from the filling-the-pot-of-inspiration dept.

angryLNX asks: "This year, my high school's computer club started running out of project ideas and fun things to do as a club. Over the years, we have done the website, the Linux box and the TV announcement system. Does anyone have any ideas for projects or activities which would be worthwhile? Any good or bad experiences with certain high school computer clubs? Since we're in Connecticut, maybe it would be fun to attend a certain conference in New York?"

2 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Try combining efforts with other clubs! by Sierran · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Computers for computers' sake, while educational, can be hard to get excited about. Find out what the other clubs are doing, and see if any of them have projects or programs which have need of your skills. Do you have a rocketry club? Maybe they need telemetry; there have been several Linux-based model rocketry setups displayed here on /. as well as around the web. Is there a bicycling or cross-country running group? See if they use GPS, and if they'd like to have a central system to keep track of runs/rides! Perhaps implement a music score archive webserver for the band! Be entrepreneurial. The most fun and useful computer projects have come about to solve problems, even if the problem in question isn't that practical.

    --
    A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
  2. a couple ideas by blackcoot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    these are things that shouldn't be too hard to implement (eg: using the matrix formulation for fully connected backpropagation networks rather than the graph model) and yet have large toy value:

    1) acquire a cheap webcam (i recommend the not-so-cheap route of firewire + an orange micro ibot) and use it to do something neat (this is what i do for a living ;-)) --- intel's opencv library (google for it) has all sorts of cool demos. possible applications: motion detection, object detection and recognition, maybe even face recognition?

    2) playing with neural networks (personally, i recommend implementing your own neural network package and then using it to solve some kind of problem --- maybe use it together with #1 to recognize things?)

    3) robots (www.kipr.org has a boatload of info on this, as well as how to get starter kits)

    4) ???

    if you'd like help with #1 or #2, give me a yell and i'll do what i can to help (i have a linux toolkit that makes talking to firewire cameras a reasonably pleasant task)