Computer Science Science Projects (Page 6)

Image Compression vs. Image Quality: Finding the Best Tradeoff

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

In this project you'll learn about how digital image files are encoded, and how digital images can be compressed so that the files take up less storage space and can be transmitted more quickly. You will also measure the quality of compressed and uncompressed images, which will give you important insights into the tradeoffs between file size and image quality. Read more

What's the Fastest Way to Sort a List?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Imagine that you have a list of names of all the people in your class. Someone asks you to put them in alphabetical order. How would you go about doing it? Would you first go through the entire list and look for all the "A" names? Then go through it again and look for all the "B" names, and so on? Do you think going through the list over and over again for each letter would be inefficient? What if you had hundreds, thousands, or even millions of names? How would you ever alphabetize them… Read more

Sounds Like RFID: Using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Reader to Make Musical Instruments

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Passports, identification cards, bus passes, and even some credit cards contain RFID tags. An RFID (radio-frequency identification) tag allows a card to be read by a computer from a short distance away. While this is very useful in everyday life, would you believe you can make music with it? RFID + sampled music sounds + a little crafting = a fun musical instrument that is limited only by your imagination. In this science project, you will make handbells out of paper cups that play real sounds,… Read more

Go Wild! Try a Wildcard

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Everybody's favorite card in UNO® is the wildcard—why? Because it can stand for any card you want! Your computer uses the same idea. A wildcard on your computer can stand for anything you want when you search. Do this science project to find out if using wildcards to conduct a search can help you find more of what you're looking for. Read more

Encryption

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Want to send coded messages to your friends? Can you write a simple letter-substitution encryption program in Python or JavaScript? How easy is it to break the simple code? Can you write a second program that "cracks" the letter-substitution code? Investigate other encryption schemes. What types of encryption are least vulnerable to attack? Read more

Killing 'Vampires': Saving Money and Power by Turning Off Computer Peripherals

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

What do you think about killing vampires? No, no, not the kind that drink people's blood, but the kind that suck your power and money away. Equipment like televisions, computers, printers, and fax machines all use electricity to operate, of course, but do you realize that this equipment might still be sucking electricity from the wall, even when you think it's turned off? These electricity-suckers are called vampire loads. In this science project, you will investigate how much power these… Read more

Printing Power! Save the Environment, One Printer Page at a Time

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Do your parents ever get upset with you for "wasting" paper and ink from your printer? Maybe you wanted to print a comic you found online, or a whole bunch of pictures of you and your friends being goofy, or all the instructions on how to put together that really awesome LEGO® castle. But 20 pages of text and pictures later, your mom or dad is yelling at you. Why do they even care how much you print? And why do people say it is a "waste" of paper? Try this printer-saving science project to… Read more

Program to Check (or Solve) Sudoku Puzzles

Science Fair Project Idea

Engineering Design Process

Sudoku is an extremely popular puzzle game. You start with a 9x9 grid of squares, which contains three smaller 3x3 subgrids. Some of the squares are filled in with numbers 1 through 9. Your goal is to fill in the remaining blank squares such that each column, each row, and each 3x3 subgrid contains the numbers 1-9. No number can appear more than once in any column, row, or subgrid. For a given starting puzzle, can you write a program to check if a Sudoku solution is valid using a programming… Read more

Build an Adaptive Game Controller for a Raspberry Pi

Science Fair Project Idea

Engineering Design Process

People with limited mobility, especially in their hands, may not be able to use traditional video game controllers. Adaptive game controllers use a variety of peripherals, like larger buttons, foot pedals, or specialized joysticks, to let people with limited mobility play video games. This video shows how to build a very simple adaptive controller that works with Scratch games on a Raspberry Pi. Can you build an adaptive game controller for a hardware platform and game of your choice? If you… Read more

Sound Frequency Analysis.

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Here's an interesting project idea with a variation that combines computer science, physics and music. You'll need a piano in a quiet room, a microphone and a computer with digital sound recording and analysis software. The project shows you how you can make a piano string start vibrating without hitting its key. You can record the sounds on the computer, and use sound analysis software to measure the frequencies of the induced vibrations. For more details see: How to Make a Piano Sing. Be… Read more

Computer Science Science Projects (66 results)

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