Topics for comp sci research course

Hi, I'm in my 2nd year and a requirement to graduate at my college is to take a course on comp sci research. I've been told to use ACM for resources but I'm not sure specifically what to choose. I need to choose a topic and implement it as well as write a paper on it. I know generally, but not sure specifically. I would love to do something on graphics but I didn't do too well in the one course I took on graphics and game programming. So I guess I'm looking for a specific area in comp sci where there is huge potential to change. I'm not sure...

This is the list I have thus far:
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0 - skinput (large surface area et we can sense our body in 3d space so we can touch our toes w/o having to look @ it, this could be a big improvement
Skinput: Appropriating the Skin as an Interactive Canvas
By Chris Harrison, Desney Tan, Dan Morris (skin as input et graphical output )
where we can touch our ears while we are studying for e.g. to check weather or to play music...)
1 - organization of memory (why the mem hieararchy exists, tradeoffs)
2 - better computer architecture (currently Von Neumann architecture or stored-program concept)
3 - Turing machine
4 - web(cyber) security (Technical Perspective: Reframing Security for the Web (b/c we post a lot of personal stuff thx to forums/social media sites)
(make sure user's data is well protected, look @ censorship with China's restriction on Google)
By Andrew Myers
Communications of the ACM, Vol. 52 No. 6, Page 82)
5 - the future is web development (look @ cloud computing, hi quality animation/graphics w/o Flash (CSS3/JS/HTML5), social network sites like Fb, Twitter,
streaming video, e-commerce)
6 - future is mobile (everyone will have a device connected to internet) (always connected) (internet to organize ppl faster to get things done)
7 - computer modeling to predict events like continental drift over millions of yrs simulated in a short time period

Seems to me we are not as qualified as you are to know what you would most benefit from....

Talk to some faculty that you're on good terms with. They'll definitely have ideas of projects, can advise you on the scope of your own ideas, etc. Remember, the business of professors is research, so why not ask the people who are really good at it?

Are you in an undergraduate program or is this a second year paper for a grad program?

If it is for a grad program you're going to want to take something which you're most interested in, research-wise. The depth at with you tackle your paper is going to be heavily influenced by your motivation, so choose wisely and, in general, talk with relevant faculty to make sure (1) your chosen topic isn't too broad, and (2) you will reasonably be able to finish a Masters thesis or Ph.D. dissertation. The key is to continually check in with your advisor and/or committee (if you know your department well, you will find out who to talk to) to make sure your focus is both developing and reasonable.

If it's for undergrad ignore the previous blurb I wrote except for the part of choosing something you enjoy. But you don't necessarily have to take it as seriously, and you also won't be expected to publish a paper, but you will be probably given your first exposure to academic-style research writing. Read interesting papers in your chosen field and pick something you can reasonably tackle (implement) in the timeframe alloted. Also, if you really want to make your instructor proud, use LaTeX for your paper. It's pretty standard in scientific publishing, and makes for _very_ professional looking papers.

Personally I love scientific visualization and think it's an interesting field, but my field is mathematical modeling and my advisor yells at me when I spent too much time coding fancy graphics. Anyone remember behold / aktif? =]