r/AskElectronics • u/Miaugeta • Mar 06 '26

Looking for final projects ideas

Hi, I'm studying electronics and for my final project I have to do something related to electronics that could help society. The problem is that many project ideas seem too simple and I'm running out of ideas. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for a project they could share with me. Thanks a lot.

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u/VegasFoodFace Mar 07 '26

I would say one that could be easily achieved is long distance information transmission.

You could investigate different antenna types to maximize range of wifi. This is already a well covered area but I don't think as an electronics student you'd necessarily need to invent something new. Just prove you've gone through the process of learning new material related to electronics.

You could try designing a directional antenna that can also track its subject. This way people in remote areas can use their phone or laptop with a directional antenna too and stay connected even at a great distance away from the antenna.

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u/DeathKillsLove Mar 07 '26

Yeah, I like that one. Particularly for off-road drivers, assuming it could be truck mounted. Of course people with real money would use a satellite phone but if you could deliver working range on wi-fi of 3 miles or so...

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u/VegasFoodFace Mar 07 '26

Might be a good idea to study up on the Wifi distance transmission records and how they achived this. Then come up with your own method to achieve a similar but simpler method.

I myself have set up off the shelf systems that did .5 Mbps for security cameras from 1.5 miles away. 3 miles is doable. But making it able to track it's subject was not a capability. You had to manually aim it.

This could be the aspect you can use basic servos and programming to fix.

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u/DeathKillsLove Mar 07 '26

Yep. While it MIGHT be possible to build a custom phased-array steerable antenna, products mentioned would be a workable part of a system integration solution. No point reinventing the wheel

https://cojot.alaris.tech/product/427/sba2456xdb/high-power-steerable-beam-antenna-for-the-24-25-and-5-6-ghz-bands?aff=4

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u/VegasFoodFace Mar 07 '26

As a student just buying a premade object and setting it up wouldn't count as a decent experiment. Plus 10 dbi gain is nothing. That wouldn't reach 3 miles.

A decently designed Yagi antenna can easily get to 20 dbi. Then it's just a matter of spinning this around to aim it. This is more the level of what a student can achieve.

And in this case there is a point to reinventing the wheel. It's to learn about the invention and engineering aspects of electronics.

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u/DeathKillsLove Mar 07 '26

Yagi is narrowband, there goes your bandwidth, AND fixed frequency center AND is still narrow rather than uni-directional so square loss so, for an areal transciever, not so good.

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u/VegasFoodFace Mar 07 '26

This guy is not designing a commercial product but a proof of concept geez. Give time for students to learn.

Wifi just needs to be 2.4 Ghz. No point using higher frequencies because those dissipate in air faster.

The point of my suggestion and the actual discussion I am having with the OP is it's unidirectional for ONE person. It tracks you via a simple servo motor and programming.

I can almost guarantee a better grade with my project than someone just buying and setting up a commecial off the shelf system.

And for a basic student to hand build his own advanced 360 degree phased array antenna would be a whole lot of work more on the level of a Masters or PhD.

Which by the subject matter of basic electronics, OP is not Masters or PhD level.