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.

Check out some projects

Chemical Production Scheduling

In this project, you will explore the science of manufacturing and how to organize a chemical plant on a high-level such that all of the batches and tasks that are being run are optimized. This entails scheduling operations in a timely manner while also maximizing the revenue and minimizing the costs of production. You will explore the effects of optimal scheduling on products and demand specifications while analyzing the sensitivity of the profits on raw materials/inputs. Prerequisites No prior coding skills are required, but you must be interested in learning how to develop algebraic formulations from real-world problems.

Engineering, Quantitative, Math

Amin

Machine Learning Project

We can choose a publicly available dataset and use machine learning algorithms to better analyze and make predictions on the data; regression models, neural networks, random forest, etc. This dataset can be from science, stock, or if the student has a particular area of interest, then we can choose a dataset that the student is interested in.

Physics, Chemistry, Math

DaVante

Helping the FDA Approve Disease Treatments

Review and understand FDA and the drug development approval process. Use FDA regulations to approve a potential drug or a drug already on the market.

Chemistry, Math

Yohely

Product Design Cycle

Design is often thought of as an ad-hoc process, but it requires proper implementation of several key steps such as understanding the specific need your design seeks to address and current shortcomings in the market, customer feedback, prototyping, testing, iterating, and delivering a final product. In this project, the student can implement the product design process on a project of their own choosing.

Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Math

Fatak

Self-Balancing Robot - Research, Analysis, and Engineering

The Star Wars droid D-0 is interesting because it is self-balancing. Creating a self-balancing robot like D-0 is a very educational project. You'll learn: Physics, linear dynamics and modeling, self-balancing control methods like the P.I.D controllers, embedded software engineering, electronic engineering. This project can be scaled according to your skills, ability, and resources. The final product is a combination of: 1. A report of the design, analysis, and modeling of the robot. 2. A software application to control the robot 3. A software simulation demonstrating virtual control of the robot 4. A hardware prototype platform demonstrating physical control of the robot 5. A physical robot created using motors, embedded processors, and sensors. The more of these tasks are performed, the more advanced the project. The following options are possible: Task 1: A beginner research paper. (No hardware investment) Task 1 - 3: An intermediate research paper and software application (No hardware investment) Task 1 - 4: An intermediate/advanced research paper, a software and hardware application. (Moderate hardware investment) Task 1 - 5: An advanced research paper, a software and hardware application, and final robot. (Moderate hardware investment)

Engineering, Computer Science, Math

David

Analyzing the economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning and macroeconomic models.

This project aims to use historical data on various economic indicators, such as GDP, unemployment, inflation, etc., and macroeconomic models that capture the interactions between different sectors and agents in the economy to train a machine learning model that can analyze the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on different countries and regions under different policy scenarios. The project will also explore the implications of the analysis for economic recovery and resilience. The project will require skills in data analysis, machine learning, and macroeconomic modeling. The project will be relevant for students who are interested in applied economics, policy evaluation, or development economics.

Economics, Math, Business, Statistics

Jameson

Is damage of a building preventable even considering a catastrophic earthquake event?

In this project we could delve into considered a large earthquake, is there a way to avoid collapse, and even damage altogether. How? (Preferred: any coding experience, Calculus, Physics.)

Computer Science, Math

Joaquin

Neurodiversity through History

How do our thinking styles vary, and how has the way we talk about that variation changed over time? What can we learn from the past about how unique "brains" are viewed across different times and places? This project could take the form of a written research paper or a presentation of research in a video or a podcast.

Social, Psychology, Math, Statistics

Eleanor

Robotic Arm/ Hand

Using a microcontroller and servos we can build a tension system that simulates a human arm. We can design several ways to actuate this tension system either with a physical controller(i.e some potentiometers or physical strength) or through software (via a website or GUI). Prerequisites or Learn quickly: Coding, Some Electronic Circuit, Intro Physics Nice to Knows: Intro Physics and Cad

Physics, Math

Shaun

Predicting Customer Behavior

What factors influence consumer's interest or disinterest in a product? Many companies are moving more and more towards targeted ads to their customers, but how do they know what content to send to each individual? This project would involve an exploratory data analysis of customer past behavior ultimately clustering them into groups and predicting future consumer behavior.

Math, AI/ML

Sarah

Simulating the Stock Market with Monte Carlo Models

This is a beginner-to-intermediate statistics and programming project centered around Monte Carlo simulations. Monte Carlo simulations are random methods for modeling the outcome of a complicated process. These methods are used in finance all the time, so this project explores an early look at how we can use code to "simulate" the stock market. Requires familiarity with: - Statistics - Basic finance - Basic programming (any language)

Computer Science, Math, AI/ML

Sahil

Synthesis Paper

In this project, you would choose 2-3 articles on a topic of your choice to study and compare. This paper would explain, compare, contrast, and offer your conclusion on the different approaches. You will develop your professional and scientific writing skills, research skills, as well as understanding and finding reliable sources. Topics could be anything from "Organic vs. Artificial heart valves" to "How the Grimm's Fairytales Changed Over Time".

Biology, Arts, Photography, Chemistry, Math

Gillian

Intro to Coding for Analytics

Want to learn how to use coding skills to spot patterns in data? This project would be best for someone who already has some exposure to programming, but even if you're brand new, we can dive in and build that foundation together! This project could take the form of a coding "notebook" or a written article summarizing findings and learnings.

Social, Psychology, Math, Statistics

Eleanor

Self-assembly of finite structures

Both proteins and nanoparticles often self-assemble to make multimers. (A multimer is a single object constructed from many individual monomers bound to one another). A major challenge is how to ensure these multimers don't grow too large. One option is to make the multimers curved, so that the multimer is a closed circle -- but that can often be quite limiting. In this project, you will explore another possibility: having the multimers themselves control the production of new monomers. Can this form of control be used to limit the size of self-assembled multimers? If so, how robust is this control? In this project, you will construct a model for a system of self-assembling proteins or nano-particles. You will then analyze the behavior of this model. Preferably, you will analyze this behavior numerically, with code you will write in Python or MatLab. If you'd like, there will also be opportunities for analytically addressing the system. The preferred outcome of this project will be a scientific research paper.

Biology, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Math

Ofer

Completing a research project for a building or car design

Do you want to design a a building from the ground up and determine all the dimensions? You can use microsoft Visio and CAD or Unigraphics to turn your dream into reality! With this or a similar project, you will design a research project that can be completed at home, and be presentation led as either a scientific poster or discussion. You will learn about the iterative process of design.

Math

Kenneth

Introduction to Elementary Particles

Elementary particles are subatomic particles which cannot be subdivided into smaller pieces. For example, electrons are elementary particles; however, protons are not (they are actually made from three even smaller particles)! Just like how the periodic table of elements describes how molecules are formed, there is a finite list of elementary particles which form all the matter in the universe. An interesting project would be to explore precisely what these elementary particles are, how they interact with one another, how they were discovered, and other related questions to deepen your understanding of the quantum world.

Physics, Math

Adam

Regression Predicting College Football Wins

For this project, steps could include: Downloading data related to past college football seasons including overall record; compiling statistics relating to yardarge for offense and yardage given up by defense; gathering statistics relating to head coach- whatever you think might be helpful in explaining the overall record of college football teams! Then once all the stats and data are downloaded and cleaned up, we could run a regression to see if any variables are statistically significant in predicting number of wins for a season.

Economics, Math, Business, Statistics

Garret

Introduction to Spiking Neural Networks

Find a paper that trains a spiking neural network. Use any provided code to implement it yourself. Look at the discussion section of the paper to see if there are any easy future directions to take and take a stab at expanding the work in that sense. Finally, compare this network to biological neurons. How are these spiking models different from real neurons? *Picture grabbed from this paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.11146

Neuroscience, Psychology, Physics, Computer Science, Math

Eduardo

Modeling patient survival

Knowing what the survival rates and trajectory of a patient is extremely important for doctors to help them think about a treatment plan! How accurately can we model someone's survival? This project will involve learning the basics of survival analysis and machine learning techniques in R.

Math, AI/ML, Statistics

Ivy

Stock Market Analysis

This project can involve the use of time series analysis and regression analysis. The students can gather data on stock prices for a company of their choice and use time series methods, such as moving averages and exponential smoothing, to analyze trends in the stock market. They can also use regression analysis to explore the relationship between stock prices and other economic factors, such as inflation, interest rates, or gross domestic product. Through this project, students can learn about finance and economics, as well as how to use data to make investment decisions. They can also learn about time series analysis and regression analysis, and how to use these methods to explore trends and relationships in data.

Engineering, Math, Statistics

Hossein