Ideas Wanted

Hello everyone.  This post is going to be quite different from my normal fiction.  I am here to ask for some help.  I am a professor and I am going to be giving a course next spring in design particularly simple engineering solutions to common everyday problems/nuisances.  I need help brainstorming ideas for possible projects.  I don’t need to have something that will change the world, (though a solution to such a problem would be awesome) but something practical.  I just read a class took a look at how they might get a better haircut.  One of the groups focused on helping get rid of the hair trimmings before they cluttered the floor since the hair stylists hated cleaning it up.  If anyone knows of anything and can leave it in the comments below, I would be extremely grateful.  I want to train my students to look for the simple solution that is inexpensive, but does the job.  That type of thinking used to be a hallmark of society, but I think we are becoming blind to it since the great internet or Apple, or Google, or some other huge place will come up with the next solution.  I want my students to know they can work out solutions themselves, see them work, and empower them to tackle even larger problems with the confidence earned from completing the task.  Thank you for your help and I promise to begin posting more fiction very soon.