If you are going to use a microcontroller in a final year project, pick something that's related to a hobby of yours. By tying them together you will be more enthusiastic about it, thus more likely to spend the hours that will be required to research and complete this project.

For instance, if photography is your hobby, maybe you want to implement a darkroom exposure meter/timer. If you're interested in medicine, maybe you want to implement Michael's life detector. There are a lot of potential projects out there. The trick is to limit the project to something that is practical for an 8051.

Dennis