Looking for a project introduced a few hurdles, namely what to look for inside a project and what to try to avoid. There are hundreds of projects which are available and picking one without proper due diligence can lead you down a road of pain.
In order to find a project which I would consider optimizing I developed a checklist to examine each package I considered:
1. Can I successfully compile and execute the package without issues on my system
2. Do I understand what the program is doing
3. Can I navigate the directories with ease inside the package
4. Is there a website/github page associated with the package
5. Is there a community or someone to reach out too
6. How convoluted is the code