The deadline for students to submit proposals for Google Summer of Code is fast approaching. Students really should be getting their proposals submitted. If you are still looking for ideas, definitely look at the list at Apache. There are a lot of good ideas there, but coming up with your own ideas is also a great differentiator.
When looking at Apache ideas, one thing to keep in mind is that when “scoring” your proposal, whether the student has interacted with the dev community during the proposal writing is considered as part of the score. Apache is all about the community so making sure the student is engaging with the community is important.
Of course, I definitely recommend students look at the ideas for CXF, ServiceMix, and Camel. High quality projects with very good communities behind them.