A question to follow, a project to make your own. Browse these possibilities, or bring an idea of your own.
Can two computers communicate using nothing but their speakers and microphones? Build a working acoustic modem that encodes digital information into sound, then explore modulation, error correction, synchronization, interference, and the fundamental limits of reliable communication.
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How can many computers cooperate to behave like one reliable system, even when individual machines fail or disagree? Build a small distributed application and explore replication, consensus, synchronization, network failures, and the challenges of maintaining a shared view of reality.
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Could blockchain technology solve a real problem at Pingry, such as verifying credentials, maintaining club records, or tracking shared resources? Design and prototype a system, while critically examining when decentralization offers advantages over an ordinary database.
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How can two people communicate securely when an adversary can observe everything they transmit? Explore the mathematics of encryption, public-key cryptography, digital signatures, and zero-knowledge proofs, perhaps building a secure messaging system or interactive demonstrations.
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How anonymous is "anonymous" data, and how much information can be recovered from supposedly private datasets? Experiment with re-identification attacks, k-anonymity, and differential privacy to explore the tension between privacy and usefulness.
Link to this ideaAll 25 project ideas, the mentoring invitation, and next steps in one illustrated lookbook.
Mike Andrews P'28 · Independent ISP mentorship