I have a wide range of research interests, but most of my experience has been associated with reliability engineering.
In a broad sense, I expect to gain a better understanding of different architectural styles and patterns in software or have an understanding of the various tradeoffs in designing a software, common and best practices.
I don't think I have enough experience to make a fair judgement. Modern trends or optimization methods might be interesting.
I haven't decided on a project yet but I am most comfortable using the python programming language. That said, I'm also trying to gain more experience with C#.