IC-tester
What do you want to build? And what do you want to test?
Do you want to test each and every IC from the 74HCxx, 74HCTxx, 74ACxx, 74LVxx, 74LVTxx, ........... series? In that case it's gonna be a difficult job.
If you just want to test the logic circuitry of a 74xxxx IC, not the voltage levels, I would recommand to develop a user interface (with a display and a keyboard where you can select which IC is in your test socket (for example, a74xx244, then you have to test a sequence of inputs and see if the outputs are correct). I think you need a microcontroller with a quite big memory for that. You have to store for each IC the necessary test inputs and the expected outputs. Maybe it's easier to use a FPGA or a PAL/MACH for those test sequences, combined with a microcontroller for the user interface.
But it looks quite interesting project. Well suited for a student to build.
Roel