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
Does cannabis have therapeutic effects for bipolar disorder?
In this project, you will learn about the underlying molecular deficits in bipolar disorder and how their symptoms manifest. You will then combine your knowledge of current treatments for bipolar disorder patients as well as the pharmacological mechanisms of cannabis to see whether it could either alleviate or worsen some of these patients' symptoms.
Psychiatry, Neuroscience
Mindfulness training in high school students improves interoceptive awareness, reduces anxiety and rumination
For this project, students would perform a combined experiment and literature review investigating the effects of mindfulness meditation on behavioral wellness. Students would be able to function as their own research subjects and track changes in their physical and mental health using an application. Students would be mentored on how to use statistical programs to analyze their data and create figures for potential publication.
Psychiatry, Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Chemistry
Parent Evaluation of the UCLA TIES Infant Mental Health (IMH) program.
Develop an online parent survey as well as conduct qualitative interviews with referred foster/adoptive parents. The objective would be to obtain input from foster and adoptive parents participating in IMH to analyze the effectiveness of this program, perceptions of relationships with TIES, and if perceptions of relationships differed between families and UCLA TIES clinicians. The survey should include demographic and family history data that can be used to identify children that have been placed in care with higher risk factors (e.g., prior abusive history, number of placements, age of placement) who are statistically likely to experience emotional, social, and academic dysregulation in life. This evacuation is intended to be used to improve the quality of services received by adoptive/foster parents so that children placed in resource care are wholly supported.
Psychiatry, Music, Neuroscience, Social, Psychology, Social Science, Nutrition, Cognitive, Public Health, Organizational Leadership
Science Blog
There has long been friction between media outlets that report on work from the scientific community and the scientific community itself, largely due to media’s tendency to sacrifice complete accuracy and transparency for a more captivating narrative. There must be a way to do both. In this project, students will pick a paper of interest and write a blog post that not only is captivating, but also accurately reports the findings of the manuscript. Here, students will not only learn to effectively communicate science to a lay audience but will also gain experience in thoroughly reading and understanding scientific literature.
Psychiatry, Neuroscience
Cultural Diet & Cancer Susceptibility
Writing a Review - In this project, you will write a paper regarding the nuances of cultural diets and their susceptibilities to various types of cancers. You can focus on one culture or compare and contrast the diets of different cultures. Throughout this process, you will learn how to find and interpret data, analyze results, and how to incorporate primary literature into a review paper all while thinking critically. At the end of this project, you will have the confidence and knowledge of how to write a review based on primary research and will be able to utilize the skills you learned to conduct further research on topics of your choosing.
Psychiatry, Biology, Medicine
Medication compliance tool
Create a system/product to help parents remember to give their children medication consistently and timely. promote communication between multiple caregivers regarding dispensing of medication for a dependent.
Psychiatry, Biology, Medicine
Analyze barriers to mental health care access in a population of your interest.
Although mental health is finally gaining attention, unfortunately there are large disparities in who can access mental health care. Performing a literature review to investigate the reasons behind these barriers, and how to circumvent them. Write a research article that analyzes your findings and offers potential solutions. You can customize the project to a population you care about, such as adolescents or certain racial or ethnic groups.
Psychiatry, Biology, Neuroscience, Social, Psychology
Review Paper
The last decade has yielded critical advances from groups around the world using neuroscience to study mental health, from updating models of intergenerational trauma to the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for treating major depressive disorder (MDD). We are overdue for some good review papers! In this project, students will pick a psychological disorder, and write a review paper on recent advances in neuroscience that have improved our understanding of the disorder’s pathogenesis, maintenance, or treatment. For this project, I encourage students to not only focus on mechanism, but to also consider the broad impact of the work they review (i.e., why should people care?). Students will learn how to systematically conduct a thorough literature review and write a manuscript evaluating the existing literature on their chosen topic.
Psychiatry, Neuroscience
Do a deep dive on something you're curious about with a systematic literature review
What do you want to know more about? What lights up your curiosity? Literature reviews are a great way to understand the lay of the lay on a topic of your choice and to become an expert on a specific area. We'll work on developing a finely tuned research question using the PICO framework (problem/population, intervention/exposure, control/comparison, and outcome) and then go through the process of developing search terms and finding relevant papers. After reviewing the papers and evaluating the evidence, we'll work on developing an outline and then write a systematic review paper about your topic.
Psychiatry, Healthcare, Public Health
Effect of Lecture-Based Intervention to Promote Resiliency (especially during COVID)
In the era of COVID, humans have had to be more resilient. This project would be to observe how a lecture or series of lectures could theoretically improve resiliency in a group of people. Resiliency has benefits in promoting mental health, increased self-esteem, and more optimistic outlook. Using surveys/tests for resiliency, Students will measure resiliency before and after the proposed intervention.
Psychiatry, Biology, Public Health
Pediatric Medical Passport
create a concise medical summary that would allow patients with multiple medical needs to share updated information with new caregivers more easily
Psychiatry, Biology, Medicine
Review paper on recent developments in neuropsychiatric therapeutics
Student will investigate the advances in neurospsychiatric behavioral therapeutics, including preclinical animal research and clinical findings in humans. Some topics may include deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and neuropharmacological approaches.
Psychiatry, Neuroscience
Design a Clinical Psychology and/or Public Health Research Study
Do you have a research question related to mental or physical health issues? Have you wondered what factors put people at risk or protect people from these conditions? Interested in what interventions or policies can help prevent or treat these conditions and how to adapt them for different populations or contexts? Are you stuck on where to begin? I will help you put your interests in the context of existing research and develop your own literature review, study, or set of policy recommendations or guidelines. Studies can be quantitative or qualitative and with data you collect or that is publicly available.
Psychiatry, Public Health, Statistics
Reconceptualizing Suicide: An arrhythmia of the brain versus a sequelae of mental illness
Despite being one of the prevailing public health concerns in our country, suicide rates have continued to increase over decades. A part of the problem is that the conception of suicide is inaccurate in many research domains as well to the general public. The prevailing thought is that suicide is often a sequelae of severe mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder. However, according to prevalence data, those with severe mood disorders only account for a fraction of suicide attempts. What are other models to approach and re-conceptualize suicide? Some recent literature has started to tease out differences between people who ideate about suicide and people who actually make an attempt. This project would involve a literature review about suicide and divorcing this phenomenon from being viewed as a consequence of depression. The outcome is variable - a research paper, opinion piece, or essay would be feasible though other outcomes are welcome. You will learn how to utilize PubMed search engines (with MeSH terms), digest primary research, and tap into writing.
Psychiatry, Biology, Neuroscience, Business
Designing and completing a research project
Have you ever wanted to be a real-life scientist, but you don’t have your very own lab? In this project, you will design a research project that can be completed at home, gather data, and present that data as either a scientific poster or talk. You will learn about the scientific process, how to construct appropriate figures for your data, and how to communicate your results in a formal presentation. You will learn valuable research skills including identifying your independent and dependent variables, statistical analysis, and how to design the best approach to answering any scientific question!
Psychiatry, Statistics
What causes someone to hallucinate?
Schizophrenia is an illness marked by experiences which deviate from our accepted reality; this includes hearing or seeing things which are not actually there (a hallucination). In this project you will dive into scientific literature on the causes of hallucinations, reading studies about potential brain-related causes and changes in the way a person perceives and processes the world which could make them hallucinate. We will also explore how clinical hallucinations relate to experiences we all might have such as falling for an optical illusion or thinking we hear our phone when it didn’t buzz. This will culminate in a literature review paper about what causes hallucinations.
Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Statistics
Build Your Own Business Using the Lean Start-up Method
Do you wish you could be on Shark Tank? Through this project, a student would learn how to develop their own business using the Lean Start-up Method. This includes learning how to do market research, developing a business plan, and creating a pitch deck. The ultimate goal is to get investment!
Psychiatry, Social, Psychology, Philanthropy, Business, Organizational Leadership
Researching the Application of the 4th Amendment in the Criminal Justice System
This project can focus on investigating how the 4th Amendment is applied in different circuit courts. The student would conduct legal research and draft a paper with findings on the issue. The paper could potentially be published in a research journal.
Psychiatry, Social, Psychology, Philanthropy, Business, Organizational Leadership
Start your own journal club
Journal club is a routine part of academic medical practice which allows physicians to gather to review, analyze, and discuss relevant research. This project may aim to give the student necessary skills to organize a similar discussion group with out like-minded individuals. Attention will be given to analysis of research data, understanding of research methodologies, and how to choose worthy topics of discussion. This will culminate in the student being able to lead discussions on relevant research with peers and/or mentors. Creating a like-minded group would allow a student to exercise leadership skills, Organizing and choosing to select and organize a formal journal club which would allow for review, analysis, and discussion of relevant research papers in
Psychiatry
Nutrition curriculum for elementary school students
Create 2 to 3 short, interactive lessons for elementary school students about food and exercise in a way that does not focus on weight or “good/bad” foods and present at local elementary school
Psychiatry, Nutrition
