Well, you don’t need to be an ISEF finalist. But I am very interested in ISEF, specifically my dilemma is that I can’t come up with a good idea. To give some background, I am in a mentor program at a large state school (focused on research) and I have a great mentor that has a PhD in geophysics I think? (he focuses on air pollution, air quality etc.) So, I have a good mentor already. Furthermore, I want to focus on computer science. When I bring up the abstract search for ISEF, it blows me away how creative people are. So, for people who participate in science fair, how do you come up with ideas? Please provide a decently long answer.
The overwhelming majority of high school students who participate in contests such as ISEF do not come up with their own ideas. Rather, their research mentor has some existing project(s) that the high school student contributes some amount of work to, and then the high school student asks for approval to present the larger project at science fairs.
Original and impactful research are incredibly difficult to come up with, and even at the undergraduate level, essentially no one actually does so without the help of a college professor as a mentor. I would advise that you talk with your mentor to see if they have any projects (typically, professors have multiple ongoing at once) that might be related to your interests, and then work on whatever existing idea fits best.
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Good idea, thanks!