As I'm getting close to wrapping up my graduate degree, one piece of advice occurs to me for my peers working on their computing graduate degree: spend some time picking your capstone project. Spend a lot of time if you have to. Set aside a weekend or even a week to brainstorm. Think about it every night for a month if that's what it takes. You're going pour at least a couple hundred hours into the project, so make it interesting.

My portfolio project has been some of the most enjoyable development I've ever done. It's a perfect mix of complete freedom coupled with deadlines and pressure to build something impressive. The big reason it's been so great is because of the level of control I had in both choosing what to implement and how to implement it.

It's a really rare opportunity to get such freedom in a development project. Treasure it. In the real world technology choices are so much more constrained. Work will have an existing techonlogy stack. Or you just need it to be reliable so you can't choose something unproven that looks fun. Or your company's infrastructure will limit your choices. Jump at the opportunity and jump at the choice.

Your capstone project is a rare chance at a greenfield project in a technology stack completely of your choosing. Embrace that and don't let someone choose for you.