Are you in EECS? Most big data centers use FPGAs "on the wire" to do things like encryption on the fly or compression so that they get "wire speedups" without b

Are you in EECS? Most big data centers use FPGAs "on the wire" to do things like encryption on the fly or compression so that they get "wire speedups" without burning CPU cycles. So FPGA solutions that "live on the wire" and can be "plugged into the LAN port" are a really useful area you can hack in your dorm room. I worked in the security area. One of the key problems is "exfiltrations" where someone tries to copy valuable files off a server. I created a startup to attack this "on the wire" with hardware so it can't be hacked. (It failed because nobody knew what an FPGA was, nor how TCP packets worked. Sigh). The idea is to create crypto-hashes of the valuable files. Hand-install the hashes into an FPGA using a read-only micro card. The FPGA sits on the wire, hashing files being sent. If the hash matches, scream. THe same idea of "unhackable" malware virus scans can be done on an FPGA. Only someone with physical access to the FPGA card can modify it. It operates "at wire speeds". The hard part is finding people who can spell FPGA and know what malware means. Be that person. You could do this in your dorm room. The side effects are that you learn a LOT very quickly, it is grounded in real code, and you could actually convince YC that your "homework" is worth a passing grade. Besides, FPGAs are just plain fun. Make your own hardware Neural Nets. Hack your bike with a camera and an NN to warn of approaching cars.