I'm a Masters student in Microbial Biotech and interested in Bioinformatics. I have a handful of good skills in Bioinformatics like python programming (in a much broader sense than just using predefined scripts), biopython, pandas, R, etc. I am really good at learning such skills.
BUT what I am really bad at is being able to design new Problems and having a real project so that I can conclude a certain fact from a dataset.
What can I do to start doing projects?
I almost don't have access to an in-person supervisor.
First off, do not make the mistake of assuming there aren't already many people in the field with those skill-sets.
Second, if you're looking to come up with an open-source project for starters, I'd advise you to go look at some forums centered around bioinformatics tools. See people's complaints, and assess how easy it would be for you to solve them.
Do keep in mind if you do a project on your own instead of contributing to an existing project, you might not get the outcome you're hoping for.
From there, always keep in mind bioinformatics is a relatively close-nit community. If you stand out and make interesting contributions, you'll find a path eventually.
a) Think about what you'd like to explore. As general as this sounds, ievitably you'll find some questions with no immediate answer.
b) Look at the groups at your institution. Find something that fits your interests, and check with the PI if you can work on the project towards a thesis.
I heavily recommend getting a PI able to supervise you.
you can start replicating results from papers. If you are looking for papers with data, I have curated some here https://github.com/crazyhottommy/papers_with_data_to_mine