1. Think about how much time & budget you have first. You want to make sure you can finish your project and can get it done with the resources you have.
2.1 If you're interested in "big data/analytics", why not look into Cloudera & Datameer, and talk to some people at the World Bank & the Inter-American Development Bank to see what problems you could solve for them?
2.2 Regarding AI, email/tweet some of the people at Deepmind & Vicarious (you can google for employee names) to see what they can suggest.
2.3 Regarding computer vision, try emailing Blaise Aguera or Johnny Lee to see what they consider "interesting" (or just google some of their work).
3. Finally, AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: think about why you're doing this. Do you just want to get it over with so you can move onto something else? If so, pick a project that's relatively simple but difficult (running a marathon is simple but difficult). Otherwise, if you want something meaningful, choose something that will be fun. Choose a question that YOU want answered and that peaks your interest. Curiousity+fun will make the work feel like no work at all. GOOD LUCK!
2.1 If you're interested in "big data/analytics", why not look into Cloudera & Datameer, and talk to some people at the World Bank & the Inter-American Development Bank to see what problems you could solve for them?
2.2 Regarding AI, email/tweet some of the people at Deepmind & Vicarious (you can google for employee names) to see what they can suggest.
2.3 Regarding computer vision, try emailing Blaise Aguera or Johnny Lee to see what they consider "interesting" (or just google some of their work).
3. Finally, AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: think about why you're doing this. Do you just want to get it over with so you can move onto something else? If so, pick a project that's relatively simple but difficult (running a marathon is simple but difficult). Otherwise, if you want something meaningful, choose something that will be fun. Choose a question that YOU want answered and that peaks your interest. Curiousity+fun will make the work feel like no work at all. GOOD LUCK!