What are some interesting areas to work on in Computer Science? I basically want to know fields in which some one can come up with good results in a period of about two semesters.

Try intersections of fields, those usually are ripe for discovery because the fact that they are an intersection of two fields instead of its own field tells you that more research needs to be done. If it were me, I'd check out machine learning, algorithms, parallel computing, graph theory, and maybe a domain field like physics or engineering. These fields have some pretty decent overlaps in some areas, and all are good things to know. Even if you understand a little bit from each you start to see some ideas that could work well together.

I am assuming that you mean Research related fields. Some areas that I personally think are worth checking out - Machine Learning - A subset of Artificial Intelligence, In this field, you build systems that learn, and change their behavior based on Data. Natural Language Processing - This field of Computer Science, deals  with processing Human language, that is enabling computers to derive meaning from human/natural language input. Data Mining -  Given a large set of data, the process of finding significant patterns in that data. Data Analysis - This field deals with finding "interesting" information from some data. Computer Vision - This is one of those fields that has a lot to do with processing image or video inputs to make decisions. Generally, we try to replicate human vision for computers.

Thanks for the A2A. Being just a sophomore I think there are far more experienced people out there who can really guide you. But nevertheless I will like to share what I have learnt from the past two years form my own experience and from my seniors.Well, the answer vastly depends on your liking and your choice. So I am assuming that you are a CS student who wants to know what to work on and answer the question from such a perspective. If you are a proficient and interested in competitive coding keep practicing on sites like SPOJ and try to improve your national and international rank as it is something that often attracts the companies during placements. If you are interested in developing software and repositories, then Github is your location. If you can make some nice open source libraries or applets, then you are totally into business. You are also encouraged to go for internships in software based companies in the summer months as you may land up with quite an attractive pre-placement offer in many case ;)Again if you are one who wants to take up research as your career and would sit for GATE or GRE then it will be best if you can start working under some professor in your own college or university. If you are a GRE aspirant then, research projects and good publications are a must as it will play the most vital role alongside your GPA when you apply for foreign universities. But even if you are a GATE aspirant it is always good to get into the habit of working n a research projects with peers as it will play a vast role in boosting your confidence and give you much needed experience.Also I will encourage you to work under professors in IITs, IISc, ISI, TIFR and other institutes in the country or even abroad during the summer months. But always remember, that it's not the institution but the quality of work that you do that matters the most. Now I come to the "interesting areas" of work you talked about, speaking of which there are plenty. You can work on Distributed Computing, Big Data, Image Processing, Machine Learning and Optimisation, Cryptography, Signal Processing and so on. (Though in most of the cases you will find yourself working in the intersection of various such fields) From what I have learnt from my two years experience and my seniors, one can do some really great job on such topics and end up publishing themselves in prestigious conferences within a span of two semesters. So, if you have liking for any of these subjects start working on that under the guidance of some professor,  most importantly as you you will get to learn a ton from such experience.Among the topics I mentioned Big Data, Machine Learning and Machine Vision are very promising fields at the present and I have seen my seniors end up with 2-3 research papers in a year on these topics. Also there is one mistake many tend to commit. If you are really interested in computer science then the first and foremost condition is always keep Mathematics with you as it is your greatest ally. Remember that Computational Science is just a sub branch originating from Mathematics and any research work in CS will require a large amount of Mathematics. If one is good in Mathematics, Data Structures and Algorithms- the Trinity of Computer Science, then he/she can work on any of the topics I mentioned with ease.I hope I could help!Best of luck!!!

Thanks A2A.I have been programming for only about 4–5 years and there might be more experienced people out there who can better answer your question. But nevertheless here are the different fields that I have come across. Web Design- It can cover anything from front-end to back-end or both (Full Stack) Open Source projects- You can contribute to various open source projects to which you think you can add any features or you can solve any bug in the existing project. Competitive Programing- This will greatly improve your programming abilities and your knowledge about different data structures and algorithms. Mobile App Development- You can make your own Android or iOS app and put it on market and earn some money. These are the ones that take relatively less time to learn. Here I am assuming that you have some previous knowledge about programming and that you're not a total beginner.Also I have not listed any research fields because they generally take more time to get your head around. But if you are interested look at ’s answer.Hope I helped.Cheers.