These projects are all described using Chris Parnin's Metaphorical Research Garden Taxonomy:
Seedling - A project at the idea stage.
Planting - A project that has some work on it; we have scheduled meetings, spent mental energy, and executed some ideas.
Growing - A project that we're giving continual attention to; small and steady progress is being made and we're meeting regularly about it.
Harvest - A project that we've created a research artifact with that has been peer reviewed in some manner.
Consider each of these projects to be good conversation starters. If any of these sound exciting to you, consider joining the lab!