Happy New Year! 2015 is here.
Our class is discussing new ideas for this CS course, and, besides reasonable things like a calendar, people want, e.g., a Fajita Friday. Food in a computer science course. Who would have thought? But some also want to make a larger project, perhaps authored by the entire class. That could be interesting.
I'd like to make an efficient 3D printer control system, but that's just me. I doubt many will want to work on a project they could never use. Perhaps we could build a MIDI sound controller.
Actually, this could be fun: hold a Core War tournament. Core War is a 1984 computer game / competition that pits two programs against one another in an isolated area of memory. Competitors write programs (called "warriors") in an assembly-like language called Redcode. Every student in the class could write warriors and submit them to a competition system - perhaps one that we also write - and would be free to do so until the end of the year. Give awards for the program with the highest rank at the end of the year, the one with the most time in top place, etc, etc. It'd occupy an entire semester but not need much work from any individual, although each person is free to submit as many warriors as they wish. The source code could be freely shared with the world afterward.
Whatever happens, this is going to be a great semester.