Some easy project to start with?

<p>I'm about to get into my sophomore year. I'm major in EE, but I have absolutely no experience outside school experiment, I want to start a project to work on, maybe something simple, but I don't know how to start? What should I do as an electrical engineering project. I looked up some information on the net, and I saw a post:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1162946-electrical-engineering-projects.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1162946-electrical-engineering-projects.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>in the post, they say joining school's IEEE, I did, but the only thing my school's IEEE offer is giving an reports from articles from IEEE magazine or IEEE spectrum.</p>

<p>So, given that I couldn't get any projects from the group, I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice or suggestion on some beginner project I can start on.
I've read about the Arduino microcontroller, but it's a little too expensive for me right now, I need to save up for it.</p>

<p>An Arduino is like $30 and a few cheap parts and you could be building something cool for 50-75 bucks…not sure how much cheaper you can get with electronic parts.</p>

<p>I’m also a rising sophomore EE major. I have found that fooling around with the Arduino is a lot of fun and a good way to learn about the programming and electronics. I know that you said that it is out of your price range right now, but you could easily find one for $20 (Arduino Uno) on amazon and be able to buy some components for an extra $10. If it is still out of your range, you could always ask your EE department if they would lend you out one. I know at my university, they lend out Arduinos for students to do projects.</p>

<p>Currently saving up to buy an Aruino microcontroller, thanks for the advice.</p>