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
Cancer Research: Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT)
Monte Carlo simulations play a crucial role in advancing cancer treatment strategies, particularly in the field of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). BNCT is an innovative approach that harnesses the power of neutrons to selectively destroy cancer cells. In this therapy, a patient is administered with a compound containing boron-10, which tends to accumulate preferentially in cancer cells. When these boron-laden cells are exposed to thermal neutrons, a nuclear reaction occurs, releasing high-energy particles that selectively damage the cancerous cells while sparing surrounding healthy tissue. The use of Monte Carlo simulations in this context involves modeling the complex interactions between neutrons, boron, and tissues, allowing researchers to optimize treatment parameters and enhance the precision and efficacy of BNCT. This simulation-driven approach contributes significantly to the development and fine-tuning of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy, offering a promising avenue in the targeted and effective treatment of cancer.
Physics, Engineering
The effect of porous burner geometry on radiation emissions
Porous media burners are solid structures that operate with an embedded flame to enhance combustion performance in comparison to free flames like those seen in a bunsen burner or on a stove. We would like to understand how the internal geometry of these burners can affect the radiation (light) emissions to the surrounding environment. This is expected to be influenced by both the geometric shape and temperature. The project is strictly experimental and requires the determination of proper instrumentation (measuring techniques). Published literature (via Google Scholar) should be consulted for previous methods in porous media experimentation and measuring the emissions spectrum and irradiance. Also, it's important to understand which variables across the different geometries should be held constant to isolate the quantities of interests, such as pore size or porosity. Furthermore, proficiency in the software used for designing the burner geometries along with the corresponding 3D printing process will be acquired. The apparatus needs to be designed to facilitate safe combustion of premixed fuel and oxidizer with minimal confluence from instrumentation. The goal is to publish a scientific research paper on our findings.
Biology, Physics, Engineering
Improving Jet Engine Efficiency
With an airplane taking off or landing every 2 seconds around the globe, the need for more fuel efficient aircraft is vital to allow for sustainable aviation. Increasing fuel efficiency starts with increasing the jet engine. These marvalous pieces of machinery are constantly being pushed to their limits, necessitating advanced materials, modeling and simulation, and testing to push technology even further. 3D printing, superalloys that can sustain high temperatures, and composites such as carbon fiber have all been enablers to more fuel efficiency engines. Join me in building our own jet engine that can propel the planes of the future!
Physics, Engineering, Math
Medical Podcast
I have experience conducting immunology research and working with leaders in the field, as well as using Adobe Audition to record and edit podcasts. I would guide you through from conducting a literature review in a topic of your choice to interviewing medical professionals to assembling your findings into a podcast episode.
Biology, Physics, Engineering, Math
Designing Spacecraft Trajectories with Newton's Laws
Whether it is exploring other worlds or simply going on a trip around the Earth, one of the fundamental task is to design the trajectory our spacecraft has to take. In this project, we'll learn how gravity influences spacecraft movement and how to calculate the force needed to send a spacecraft from one place to another. Then, we'll put our newfound knowledge into action by creating a cool computer program to help us visualize and design spacecraft trajectories. Ready to take off on this cosmic journey? Let's explore the wonders of orbital mechanics together!
Physics, Engineering, Math, Creative Writing
Computational Physics
Learn how to do calculus numerically and use this power to simulate and solve real world physic problems. We can go over the basics of numerical methods and apply topics to solve real world physical systems ! We can model such things as a nonlinearized version of a pendulum, collision between solid masses, or some basic finite element analysis Prerequisites or Learn quickly: Coding, Intro Physics, Calculus Nice to Knows: Linear algebra and Differential Equations
Physics, Math
Aerospace Attitude Control
To maintain stable flight, aerospace vehicles are equipped with an attitude control system that corrects disturbances interacting with the vehicle’s dynamics. Stability is achieved by applying the forces that are necessary to return to a nominal trajectory through the vehicle’s actuators. Aerospace actuators come in many different shapes and sizes, but the fundamental theory behind attitude control is universal to nearly all aerospace vehicles. In this project, we’ll design a rudimentary attitude control system by focusing on the vehicle’s roll dynamics only. Your task is to architect a feedback control system to maintain level ‘flight’ about a quadrotor’s roll axis. We’ll begin by reviewing the equations of motion for a simple quadrotor model. Next, we’ll investigate and implement an industry-standard control method known as PID control. While using MATLAB to simulate and control the vehicle, we’ll discuss real-world hardware such as inertial measurement units (IMUs) and brushless (BLDC) motor controllers. Time-permitting, students will have the opportunity to investigate a new and exciting application of data-driven control (sometimes referred to as machine-learning control) through their quadrotor model. To learn more about the project and the fundamentals of control theory, please visit https://natesosikowicz.wixsite.com/curriculumvitae/control-systems
Physics, Engineering, Math
Computer vision in autonomous drones
We will use OpenCV as a computer vision tool to aid in developing an autonomous drone. One of the biggest problems in developing autonomous drones is localization. The drone needs to know where it is relative to everything else. OpenCV is used in localization to identify nearby landmarks in order to accurately predict where it is currently located. This project will use computer vision to identify landmarks, and use this data to predict where the drone is located.
Physics, Engineering, Math, AI/ML
Looking back into the Universe through the spectrum of the oldest light
Have you ever wonder how the universe began? What shapes the galaxies, our milky way, or even yet, the earth that we live on? In an attempt to answer all of these questions, we can look back in time to 13.8 billion years ago and study the oldest light in the universe: the Cosmic Microwave Background or CMB for short. The CMB appears in the microwave region of the electromagnetism spectrum. To put it into perspective, the microwave that you used to cook has the same wavelength as the CMB. This project can be as simple as a historical dive into what is the CMB and what it has revealed about the structure and formation of the early Universe to something more computationally intensive, where the student can explore CMB maps and power spectrum from various different current experiments (e.g. Planck) and the possible science cases that we can do with the CMB. Prerequisites Basic background in physics and coding experience (Python) if want to go with the computational route.
Physics, Computer Science
The Development of a Wearable to Detect Blood Oxygenation
Have you ever wanted to be able to monitor the blood inside your brain, and see what happens in your brain when you're thinking! Near-infrared spectroscopy allows you to do that! In this project, we can conduct a literature review and develop a prototype of a wearable probe that will allow light to enter the brain to monitor the flow of blood. We can use CAD software to design the probe, and write a proposal for how it can be used!
Biotech, Biology, Neuroscience, Physics
Student Engagement in My School
There are a variety of methods for assessing instruction and student learning and a variety of approaches. If you are interested in understanding how different classes are taught, you could learn the COPUS observation protocol, which you could use to create a somewhat quantitative representation of your classes. If you are interested in student engagement we could distribute the CLASS, as survey designed to measure students' perceptions of their learning. A combination of the COPUS and the CLASS would let you make claims about how specific instructional strategies affect students' interest in learning. On a more qualitative level, we could create our own survey or even an "interview protocol" to investigate specific issues that are interesting to you. For example I am particularly interested in keeping students engaged, and if a teacher at your school consistently has excited engaged students we could iteratively interview students to investigate common trends in their experiences and report on what that teacher does. There are a lot of ways to go about investigating learning and teaching- in the end they boil down to your interests, but each project would involve determining a goal using your interest, creating a plan to collect data, and then writing a report that explains our findings with evidence.
Physics
Origami folding in micro-robotics
Origami is heavily used in the field of micro-robotics. We will come up with an objective (usually a simple movement) for the micro robot to do. Then we will use software (e.g. https://origamisimulator.org/) to design an origami fold that will actualize the objective of the robot. Then we will use CAD software to computationally model the origami design.
Physics, Engineering, Math, AI/ML
Lasers
Learn the basics of how lasers work! After studying the basics of optical resonators and gain media on general a general laser system, you can learn more about a particular type of laser (such as a semiconductor or helium-neon laser) and explain what makes it tick, and what its particular advantages and disadvantages are.
Physics
How does the size of an ecological community affect its long-term behavior?
Mathematical models have had an enormous impact in understanding ecology. Recent work (de Pirey & Bunin, 2024) showed that a well-known model of ecological systems known as the Lotka-Volterra model (or sometimes as the resource-competition model) can give rise to surprising behavior. For very large systems with randomly chosen parameters, populations can either be stable or chaotically fluctuating, depending on the value of one parameter (the migration rate into the community). In this project, you will explore how these results depend on the size of the ecological community. As you change the number of members in a community, what are the effects on coexistence vs. extinction? And for communities that coexist, how does the nature of that coexistence change with the community size? In this project, you will write code (preferably in Python or MatLab) to simulate an ecological system as a set of differential equations. You will use this code to generate data that you will then analyze. If you'd like, there will also be opportunities to address these differential equations analytically. The preferred outcome of this project will be a scientific research paper.
Biology, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Math
Galactic Structure Evolution Over Time
Astronomers are always trying to learn more about how galaxies form, especially since most of the mass in many galaxies is in the form of dark matter. How does the total mass vary over time? How does the mass of a galaxy's central black hole vary over time? Are there differences in these trends? Since we cannot evolve a galaxy ourselves (except in simulations), we use redshift as a rough proxy for time, and could use composition data, if it was available, as a further refinement of galactic age.
Physics
Optimizing Radiation Hardness of Solar Cells for Space
Solar cells used in space not only need to be highly efficient but also light and radiation-resistant, because in space there are streams of high-energy particles that, without the protection of our atmosphere can damage electronic devices. Nanowire solar cells provide some inherent protection from this radiation because of its geometry, which makes the cells last longer, but optimizing the geometry for both radiation resistance and high efficiency is a challenge scientists are still working on.
Physics
Computation
As with many STEM fields today, astronomy is very computationally intense (for simulation, as well as data analysis). For a beginner, a good place to start might be the interface of observation and theory: fitting or very simply modeling data. This would also be a potential later stage of an observational project pending scope and interest. For those with more coding experience, a simple N-body simulation is a nice place to start astronomically. This could look like just integrating the orbit of the moon around the earth, or could be extended to more of the solar system.
Physics, Computer Science
All About Rubber: An in-depth study of the chemical and mechanical properties of elastomers
Polymers are some of the most relevant and impactful materials for everyday life, and the basis of all polymer science lies in understanding the structure-property relationships present in these macromolecules. In this project, you will gain a better understanding of the chemical and mechanical properties of rubber, an extremely familiar yet remarkably unique polymeric material. Through either hands-on experimentation or an in-depth literature review, you will research the chemical structure of rubber in order to understand the effect of temperature and vulcanization on its mechanical behavior. By the end of the project, you will be able to explain why rubber is classified as a liquid instead of a solid, why it contracts when it's heated, and how the addition of nanofillers makes it a material suitable for car tires. You will produce a scientific research paper based on your findings and learn how to refine your analytical abilities and technical writing skills.
Physics, Engineering, Chemistry
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
Coral Bleaching
Coral reefs are a vital part of the ocean's coastal marine ecosystem. They protect fragile coastlines from storms and erosion, provide jobs for local communities, and are a recreational hotspot. The National oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA) has said over half a billion people depend on reefs for food, income, and protection. In recent years, coral reefs have been facing increasingly episodic bleaching events that now pose a threat to both marine life and coastal communities. This project can either be a literary review of the coral bleaching events and the reasons behind them, or how human intervention has accelerated the coral reef deterioration or a brand new research idea to understand these events.
Physics, Engineering
