As mentioned on the Final Project Page, a good inspiration for topics is the COMAP Contests in Modeling. The problems from previous years are posted for both the Mathematical and Interdisciplinary contests, and most of these would be suitable for investigation. You may choose another topic beyond these questions, but it must be as complex and interesting as those posed above.
When selecting a topic, you want to make sure it is sufficiently complex and interesting. In order to help with topic selection, I’ve put together some criteria for you to consider.
Your topic must involve analyzing data. This data can be either pulled from an external source, cleaned up and further processed, or it can be generated. As long as the data lends itself to non-trivial analysis and visualization, either approach is acceptable.
Your data needs to have numerical and categorical features. Ideally, more than one numerical and more than one categorical feature. However, exceptions can be made at my discretion. Time-series datasets are also a rich source of information but this is not a requirement.
Your topic must lend itself to the computational modeling techniques discussed in the second half of the course.
Consider the following in your research for a topic: Does my topic seem to exhibit underlying mathematical structure? In other words, could an equation (or set of equations, or probabilities, or an algorithm, etc.) be written to explain my topic? If you are unsure about your topic selection meeting this criteria, please involve me.