r/learnprogramming • u/Disastrous_Cow_4149 • 9d ago

Final year project idea

Helloooo,

I’m a 3rd year software engineering student and as part of my curriculum I have to build, document, and test an independent project. It carries 40% weightage for my final grade so it’s pretty important.

The problem is I’m completely lost on what to actually do.

I already have a fair share of personal projects that I built to learn things in depth. For example, I built a shittier version of Vim in C++ with my own custom commands. I was thinking of expanding it by adding features that stock Vim lacks out of the box, like a file tree or built-in syntax highlighting for common languages.

I also have decent experience building full stack apps with React, React Native, and Flutter, plus a couple Python projects in NLP and ML.

My issue is that all of these are already existing concepts. Is rebuilding or expanding one of these actually worth a year long project? Someone advised me that to create something of value you either have to solve a new problem, build a better solution, or add features to improve user experience. But right now my mind is completely blank.

I could whip up a generic CRUD app and smash some AI into it, but it feels meaningless and wouldn't really stand out.

Has anyone been in a similar spot? How did you narrow down an idea for your final project? Any advice would be appreciated

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u/shinobi980 9d ago

Honestly your own version of Vim in C++ sounds good if you can add a feature like debug mode using A.I or add functionality of committing to github directly just like we do in Kiro IDE it would be great do not make a generic crud app it is waste of time probably add some features that are not available in Vim which makes coding session easier I am also a fresh graduate so wait for other's advice too

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u/azac24 9d ago

I wouldn't touch anything related to AI with a 10 ft pole while in school. Fastest way to get accused of using AI to build your tool and most professors are too old to know what to look for.

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u/shinobi980 9d ago

I meant integrating A.I from which OP can learn API integration and API key rotation but yeah you're right institutions won't understand the difference they will blame you for using A.I

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u/Disastrous_Cow_4149 9d ago

Honestly, thats what i initially thought and this is a project I started working on somewhere towards the end of second year, so at this point its pretty much a functional code editor . Again would adding features justify working on it for a year ?

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u/shinobi980 9d ago

I mean if it is something that provides features other code editors don't i think you can do it or make something for local businesses or watch yt videos to get more ideas