How to select a topic for Term-Paper (or Research paper/Thesis)?

Many of the best research topics come from students working on the areas that they're
interested in. So, pick something that you can get excited and passionate about!

Pick at least two or three related papers clearly related to any of the course topics. Carefully
read the papers and write a short (approximately 2-3 pages) reaction paper about the content of
the chosen papers. You should be thinking beyond what you read, and not just take other
people's work for granted. The reaction part of the paper should address the following
questions:
Summary
What is main technical content of the papers?
How do the papers relate to the topics presented in the course?
What is the connection between the papers you are discussing?

Critique
What are strengths and weaknesses of the papers and how could they be addressed?
What were the authors missing?
Was anything particularly unrealistic?

Brainstorming (that then leads to the Research proposal)

What are promising further research questions in the direction of the papers?
How could they be pursued?
An idea of a better model for something? A better algorithm? A test of a model or
algorithm?

Reaction papers should not just be summaries of the papers you read. The last two bullets
should form the most substantial part of the document. Answering these questions can be a
very good way to explore a potential research topic.

Research Proposal

Your research proposal should be built on the reaction paper components. The purpose of the
reaction paper is to survey the related work and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
papers and how they may be addressed. The proposal should then focus on promising further
research directions and questions: How precisely do you plan to pursue them? What
methods/data do you plan to use? The proposal should contain at least some amount of each
of the following two types of content:
A test of a model or algorithm (that you have read about or your own)
A proposal for a model or algorithm that potentially extends or improves the topics
discussed in the papers you've read.
When writing the proposal you should try to answer the following questions:

What is the PROBLEM?

What has been DONE?
What YOU want to do?
HOW it is different?