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
Psychology and Movement
Use open source software such as OpenCap.ai or OnForm App to analyze biomechanics data. Then relate this biomechanics data to psychological constructs such as kinesiophobia (fear of movement) and quality of life.
Psychology, Statistics
Climate Change Risk Assessment for a City or Town
Most research on climate change tends to draw conclusions about changes expected for a large region, but planning and resiliency typically occurs at a much more local level. This project would consider the risks for a particular area and consider solutions that similar regions are adopting.
Environmental Science, Statistics
Creating a short narrative film with visual effects for TikTok or YouTube
Using a combination of programs and applications from the Adobe Suite (e.g., Premiere Pro and After Effects), we can brainstorm, write, film, and edit a short narrative film to help grow your understanding and knowledge of visual storytelling and editing. This could include creating a short film (one to three minutes) from start to finish, or taking an idea for animation or visual effects and working our way through it. By the end of the project, you'll understand the adobe filmmaking and video editing workflow and will be able to take your ideas to the screen with future projects.
Photography, Social Science, Statistics
Player Projection Model
538's RAPTOR and basketball index's PIPM are just two examples of predictive models that take in a players past and current performance to predict out how they will be in the coming years. Similar to the draft model, understanding which player's are on the verge of improving and which have the potential to decline is important for NBA front offices. This project will include data gathering and cleaning, predictive modeling with the potential to create an app based visualization to show results.
Sports Analytics, Statistics
Perceptions of cannabis use during the pregnancy period
Often people assume substance use is a easy choice, that people have not thought about the effects on them or their families. In recent literature, we have found the opposite. People often really weigh the decision of using cannabis during pregnancy quite heavily and chose to use for personal reasons. This project would explore those reasons for use depending on legalization, and access to other treatment.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Statistics
Bridging the Learning Gap with Open-Source Data
This project is designed for exploring educational equity by using open-source data to investigate disparities in educational access and outcomes in diverse communities. Students will learn how to gather, analyze, and visualize data, enabling them to better understand the complexities of educational equity and contribute to positive change in their communities. Learning Outcomes: - Enhanced data collection and analysis skills. - Improved understanding of educational equity and disparities. - Awareness of the factors contributing to disparities in education. - The ability to visualize and present data effectively. - Empowerment to advocate for positive change in the field of education.
Economics, Math, Social Science, Statistics
Analyzing Social Media and Political Polarization
This project will investigate the role of social media in contributing to political polarization. Analyze how online echo chambers and algorithmic recommendations influence users' political beliefs and affiliations. This project could involve reviewing scholarly literature, gathering and analyzing data, and presenting results in the form of a scientific research paper, blog, or other platform of your choosing. The student can produce a research paper or report that provides insights into the multifaceted relationship between social media and society, delving into issues of representation, inequality, communication, and cultural dynamics in the digital age.
Social Science, Statistics
Measuring the impact of online reviews on customer satisfaction and loyalty for a hotel booking platform.
This project aims to design and conduct a survey to measure how online reviews influence customer satisfaction and loyalty for a hotel booking platform. The project will use a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data from online surveys, interviews, and focus groups. The project will also analyze the relationship between online reviews, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and behavioral outcomes, such as repeat purchases, referrals, and complaints. The project will require skills in survey design, data collection, data analysis, and report writing. The project will be relevant for students who are interested in marketing, consumer behavior, or hospitality management.
Economics, Math, Business, Statistics
Bioinformatics analysis to discover the molecular nature of a disease (e.g. cancer) and propose new drug targets
Recent years have seen an explosion of publicly available genomic datasets related to human health and disease. Among the most powerful datasets available today are single cell RNA sequencing datasets, which capture information about which genes are active in thousands of individual cells. By studying the differences in scRNAseq data between healthy cells and those with a disease (e.g. a tumor vs normal tissue), we can learn about how the disease works on a molecular level and even identify new drugs to treat the disease. This bioinformatics approach can be applied to any disease with publicly available scRNAseq data, such as many forms of cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and asthma. Datasets can be downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) and the European Nucleotide Archive (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/). Students conducting a project of this type will gain skills in gathering publicly available sequencing data, genomics analysis and visualization in Python, and statistical tests used in biomedical research. Along the way, students will learn about the fundamental biology of the disease they choose to study.
Biotech, Biology, Computer Science, Statistics
Question and Answering System for school
Have you joined a new school? Or remember starting a new school year? Let's say you need to check some basic questions about school procedures. You could design a question and answer based chatbot for your school's website. This will involve developing a machine learning model that can understand and answer questions based upon all text sections included in your school website. Furthermore, there will be tasks involving data collection and preparation, some basic web development, model evaluation, deployment and monitoring. It can be a very practical project that can benefit the school community by providing quick and accurate answers to common queries, thereby helping the parents, staff and students.
Engineering, Computer Science, Sports Analytics, Math, Statistics
Exercise for the Mind
Have you ever taken a study break by walking outside? Do you hit the gym or go for a run to destress? Have you ever worked out before an exam to help you remember items better? In this project we would walk through some of the research on exercise and the brain (and where/how to find reliable information). Psychology is a massive field with a lot of content so we could narrow down what you're interested in. The influence of exercise on anxiety, depression, or memory, motivation, or decision making. This project would allow you to gain a more in depth understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the brain/body, as well as psychological constructs and cognitive processes. Potential outcomes of this project could be a research proposal or paper. But if you want to be more creative, there is enough information on this topic to create a podcast or informative YouTube channel! How will you exercise your mind!
Neuroscience, Psychology, Statistics
breast cancer
In this project, we will pick the matching/labeling that gives the lower misclassification rates
Statistics
Poverty trends
How did world poverty trends change in the last decade? Which regions improved and which did not? What are the possible explanations?
Economics, Math, Finance, Statistics
Social Psychology In The Modern World
This project could take multiple forms, such as a theoretical paper conceptualizing current events/issues (e.g. mass shootings, COVID-19 impacts on social behavior, etc.) based on social psychological theories or a review article on recent social psychology research/theory. Any paper format would involve some form of literature review, and could be written in different frames (e.g. narrative, persuasive, etc.). Ideally, the goal would be to publish this paper in a peer-reviewed journal or similar forum.
Philosophy, Cognitive, Statistics
Is this AI Model Fair?
There is a lot of excitement about machine learning models being used more commonly in daily life. However, the impacts of these models on marginalized groups are not well understood. In this project, the student can choose a machine learning model, or build one from scratch, and assess how fair the model's predictions are for different groups of the target population. The student can then write a research paper exploring their findings.
Computer Science, Math, AI/ML, Statistics
Developing a new method of measuring multiraciality
Have you ever wondered what happens to data collected from participants who check the box "Multi-racial" when asked about their race or ethnicity? In most cases, those data points are discarded, because we currently lack a reliable and effective method of analyzing racial-ethnic differences among multiracial individuals. This project proposes a new statistical analysis method that potentially allows us to find unique and groundbreaking insights into the collection and measurement of multiracial data.
Psychology, Business, Statistics, Organizational Leadership
The Gut Microbiome-Brain Axis: Understanding the Influence on Mental Health
Write a literature review that provides a comprehensive understanding of the bidirectional communication between the gut microbiome and the brain, focusing specifically on its impact on mental health. The review can consolidate and analyze existing research literature, elucidating the mechanisms underlying how alterations in the gut microbiota composition influence mental health outcomes.
Neuroscience, Statistics
Science communication and outreach
Science communication is an important component of conducting research. Together, we could research a topic of interest and create an easy-to-use resource (e.g., commercial, blog post, or newsletter) to explain our findings to general audiences.
Biology, Public Health, Statistics
Policy projects
How competitive are industries where brands are all owned by 1 or 2 companies? What is the impact of removing gas tax on gas prices? Will firms stop being innovative if prices are capped for their products?
Economics, Business, Statistics
Foundations of Structural MRI Physics
In this project, you will learn about the physics of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). You will explore the physics of the MRI machine and how those signals interact with the body to produce a structural MRI. You may choose to focus on anatomical images or diffusion-weighted images, or you may explore both topics. You will then produce an a scientific review paper or infographic depicting the process, depending on your preference. Prerequisites Basic understanding of physics and biology.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive, Statistics
