What are some interesting/appropriate things you've found? Some universities post lists of senior projects (like this one: **broken link removed** ). If you've already read some of those, is there something that you mostly liked except for X? Maybe someone can help you out with X. Not saying you should or need to copy a project and just change something, but maybe there's the seed of an idea you saw in something?
ECE in what country/region/school etc? A senior at one school might not have the same expectations put on them as one at another.
What are the requirements as presented to you by the instructor?
Without more background, people have to guess--then you will wind up with everything from "how about making 2 LEDs flash" through "make a medical ultrasound imager".
Anyway, here's something *I* think should exist: a self-sufficient, voice-controlled programmable coffeemaker, mostly self-sufficient (just has a hopper for beans). Myself, I'd probably think about using something like a TS-7400 to run it all.
Loop antennas are very helpful in MW and HF reception. A "loop" can be a coil of wire on a ferrite core, such as those found in a simple AM broadcast radio. It can also be a loop of wire on a frame, possibly 0.5 meters or so on a side. The loop is rotated for best reception. Best reception can be strongest signal or the elimination of a strong signal to allow reception of a weaker signal. The loop can also be tuned to the frequency of interest for better performance.
What you might do is develop a controller that would have a memory - that would position the loop based on some input that you'd provide - a switch, keypad, etc. You could take this quite far - possibly interfacing the receiver so that the loop is auto-tuned.
This note barely touches the surface but it seems a project like this could be kept simple or increased in complexity. The idea is "selfish" in the sense that this would be something I might do someday. If you do it first then share - saves me some work.
Build a propeller clock. It uses a MCU, motor, sensors and it's both mechanical and electronic. To complicate the system you can use a brushless motor salvaged from an old hard drive more sensors here, magnetic coupled power supply and to complicate even more, use a remote control to work the thing.