I have a few options I might work on...
As part of teaching myself python, I put together a small GPS logging/analysis package[0]. I have lots of ideas for extending it, so I would work on those.
I am also interested in gaining some hardware experience and seeing what sort of home automation things could be done with hardware like arduinos and raspberry pi. Associated with this, I am interested in exploring the options for natural language control through the inclusion of speech recognition and perhaps neural networks. The goal of this would not be AI, but to be a trainable system which might handle home control work.