2,893 Inspirational Passion Project Ideas
Turn inspirations into your passion project.
This collection of project ideas, shared by Polygence mentors, is meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
- AI/ML
- Animation
- Arts
- Biology
- Biotech
- Business
- Cancer
- Chemistry
- Cognitive
- Computer Science
- Creative Writing
- Dance
- Dentistry
- Economics
- Engineering
- Entomology
- Environmental Science
- Ethics
- Fashion
- Finance
- Game Design
- Healthcare
- History
- Illustration
- Languages
- Linguistics
- Literature
- Math
- Medicine
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Nutrition
- Organizational Leadership
- Philanthropy
- Philosophy
- Photography
- Physics
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Quantitative
- Social
- Social Science
- Sports Analytics
- Statistics
- Surgery
Quantitative Legal Analysis
Let's use data analysis and visualization to explore a legal issue of your choice!
Biology, Arts, Chemistry
Houseplant Helper Robot
In this project, you will design an Arduino-based robot to help with the keeping of houseplants. By connecting different sensors to the Arduino, you can monitor plant conditions, such as soil moisture, sunlight, temperature, and more. After processing this data using the Arduino, plant conditions can be communicated via simple LED lights, LCD display, or even a webpage.
Arts, Engineering, Computer Science
Religious Pluralism Blog
Curious about how religions are formed, how the grow, and how they influence cultures, start wars, change history? Dive into the background and theory behind a variety of religions and create a multimedia blog to help educate others.
Arts, History, Languages, Social Science
Spirituality and Mental Health
In this project, you will review scientific literature on the relationship between personal spirituality/religion and mental health. You will learn how to conduct a scientific literature review in the field of psychology (how to use search engines to find recent and relevant peer-reviewed research articles, how to read, summarize, and synthesize peer-reviewed articles). You will produce a scientific review paper and propose a research question that you did not find to be answered in the existing scientific literature.
Social, Arts, Statistics
Crisis Communication Case Study Analysis
When something big goes wrong in your organization, how do you handle it? Expert crisis communicators know how to handle the most dramatic situations, and you'll find them working at - or consulting for - some of the largest businesses in the world. The bigger they are, the harder they may - or may not - fall. A crisis communication case study is a research project analyzing one or more crises experienced by a public organization using different public relations and advertising techniques to come to conclusions about strengths and weaknesses of the recovery effort. This is a writing-heavy project that should leave the researcher with a broad set of tools and knowledge for handling communications in a time of crisis.
Arts
Artistic Medium Exploration
In this project, there are two major options: 1. Choose an artistic medium to learn or practice it by producing an array of pieces in a series. 2. Choose a topic and create an array of pieces using a different artistic medium for each. This project would be more open-ended and a good chance to explore something creative you may not have tried before.
Biology, Arts, Photography, Chemistry, Math
Student venture marketplace
Create an online marketplace for student entrepreneurs. This project involves designing and developing a website that provides a platform for high school students to showcase and sell their products or services.
Music, Arts, Business
Studying Yoga as A Pathway for Black Queer Women's Sexual Wellness
This project will interview Black queer women with varying amounts of yoga experience and determining how practicing yoga benefits their sexual wellness and ability to have pleasurable sex. Secondary questions will ask how yoga benefits this population's mental health.
Psychology, Arts, Business
Let's make a genre film!
Many movies use specific patterns to give their viewers clues to the movie they are about to see: the "meet cute" in a romcom, the "dark and stormy night" in a film noir, the fast cuts of an action film. These tropes can be used to make your audience feel comfortable, but they can also be used to subvert your audience's expectations. Using your favorite movie as a backbone, we can explore the patterns of any genre you like and use them to make your own short film. Along the way, we can discuss the history of your particular genre, the ways in which genre popularity fluctuates in relation to world events, and how you can use the disarming nature of genre movies to talk about real world problems.
Arts
Punk, Goth and Alt Influences on Building Community in Marginalized Populations.
This can be a podcast or presentation on the rising influence of alt lifestyles in building community and belonging in marginlaized communities. It can include interviews with current alt and goth artists and research on the healing powers of music.
Music, Psychology, Arts
the Seahorse
i want to live underwater. so i paint underwater worlds with water color, sometimes on paper, sometimes on my bedroom walls. the drawings are calling to be animated. so i wrote this short story: One day I spotted a seahorse. That is odd, I thought. It was approaching me. It also had a suit on, and carried a briefcase abruptly on one of its fins. I lifted my tentacle and shook its fin. The next day I spotted a seahorse. That is odd, I thought. It was approaching me. It had the same suit on, and carried the briefcase on its fin. I lifted my tentacle and shook its fin. The next day I spotted the seahorse. That is no longer odd, I thought, it happened yesterday and it will happen tomorrow. It was approaching me, with the same suit and briefcase on its fin. I lifted my tentacle and shook its fin. On my way home, I counted my tentacles again. Five. It happened yesterday and it will happen again tomorrow.
Arts, Creative Writing
Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Future of Design
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the world we live in, and its impact on various industries is becoming increasingly apparent. One industry that is undergoing significant changes is design, both physical and digital. With AI tools and techniques, designers can automate tasks, generate new ideas, and make better-informed decisions. However, the role of designers in the age of AI is not clear, and many questions remain unanswered. This research project aims to explore the impact of AI on the future of design and the implications it has for designers.
Arts, Business
How to Read Theory
Is there a theoretical work that you've always wanted to read but have never had the opportunity to? This project will give you that chance! Together, we will work through a text of your choosing and discuss how to talk about and how to read theory.
Arts, History, Literature, Social Science
Documentary arts & film
Are you looking to make a short film? Do documentary research for an art project? Conduct oral history interviews? I can support mentees in documentary research and production for an artistic project in their media of choice (film, video, art, sound, installation, poetry, creative nonfiction, social practice, etc). Our process could support archival research, place-based observation, interviewing, technical and creative support (for recording audio, video or photo), pre- and post-production, and documentary ethics. If you're not sure what you want to make, we can think together on research topic, creative processes of inquiry, and artistic outcomes.
Arts, Literature, Creative Writing
Community Focused Health Analysis
Population data on disease within a particular geographic region is critical to both clinicians and health systems. It helps inform strategic decisions on how to tailor services to particular patient population. This project would describe and analyze rates of disease incidence within a specific community of interest and provide ideas for targeted solutions.
Biology, Arts, Healthcare, Business
Best Behavior practices for students with moderate-severe disabilities
Within this project, the student will explore various behavior strategies that are commonly used with students with severe needs. Student will choose a student to focus on that displays a significant behavior. Student will then choose a behavior strategy to utilize to attempt to shape their undesired behavior within the classroom. Student will observe, predict, analyze and dissect the data collected to determine the effectiveness of their hypothesis.
Arts, Organizational Leadership
Cooperation in multi-robot systems
What’s better than one robot? How about a bunch of robots working together! This field of research is known as “multi-robot systems” or “swarm robotics”- using a group or of coordinated robots to complete complex tasks. What are the benefits and challenges in coordinating a group of robots? For a group where all the robots are a single type vs. a group of multiple different types of robots, how do these considerations change, and how do they stay the same? This project will explore the current state of the art of multi-robot systems, compare the benefits and challenges of various robot systems, and make recommendations on their usage.
Arts, Engineering, Computer Science
Art + Science Intersections (especially environmental research)
Are you an artist or writer who integrates the sciences into your work? Or do you care about environmental issues? I am happy to support you in researching the topic of your choice and integrating it into your artistic practice and creative work--from sculpture to social practice to film to poetry. My own research focus tends to be on fungi, water, pollution and entanglement, but I can support any topic you feel drawn to.
Arts, Literature, Creative Writing
Exploring Identities Through Multimedia
As my final project for a study abroad program I did in Rabat, Morocco, I filmed an experimental documentary of a 20-year-old Moroccan woman to capture her life, dreams, vision, and identity. I am very interested in exploring various identities and the way different aspects of society, such as culture, gender, language, class, race, and religion affect identities through film and other media. If you are interesting in creating and portraying unique stories and people through multimedia (film, podcasts, music, art, etc.), I would be happy to help you!
Music, Social, Arts, Creative Writing, Social Science, Cognitive
Sustainability strategy: business plan
Choose a company sector of your choice (fashion, food, entertainment,...others) and identify direct actions the company can take to increase its environmental sustainability. Comment on actions the company is currently taking (if they are taking any actions) and evaluate the effectiveness of their sustainability strategy. Provide new ideas to improve the company's sustinability, drawing on academic journal articles and high quality sources. This process will include a literature review and developing a research outline. Results can be presented as a paper or in the form of a presentation.
Arts, Languages, Business
