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

Navigating the Social Impact World

Focused on students who want to understand how an idea may translate into an actual product, and the intermediary steps that lead to this outcome. I will help them brainstorm a Theory of Change, think of impact metrics, and help them design a social venture. By the end of the project, students will be able to: (i) come up with a business concept from a social impact perspective; or (ii) create their social impact venture.

Philanthropy, Business, Organizational Leadership

Luciana

Real Estate

Location is the prime factor when establishing any commercial real estate property (industrial, retail, multi-family, office, hotel). With a shift in the economy, many rent regulations and terms of loans have changed, while underwriting on properties has improved. We will cover: -Why many loans on properties default (can’t make a payment) -How underwriting before and after the stock market crash in 2008 has changed and developed Project: The student will pick a real estate property to invest in, given the circumstances of the market, and justify their choices in a paper or presentation.

Business, Finance

Carolina

Poster - infant health

Learn how to describe the health of infants through a poster presentation. You will learn how to pull, analyze, and present the data in a visually appealing poster.

Biology, Computer Science, Social Science, Business

Joshua

Business and Personal Finance

I would like to explore the relationship personal finance (financial literacy) and a person's desire to work in the business field, whether as an entrepreneur or business related career field. This could be a presentation/lecture on the importance of financial literacy or could be written as an essay.

Biology, Psychology, Healthcare, Business

Paul

Researching the ethical implications of AI

Are you passionate about artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on society? Do you want to delve deeper into the ethical considerations surrounding AI technologies? This student mentorship project offers a unique opportunity for you to research and analyze the ethical implications of AI, guided by experienced mentors. By the end of the project, you will gain valuable insights into the complex ethical landscape of AI and be equipped to navigate its challenges. Expected Outcomes: 1) Enhanced understanding of AI technology and its ethical implications. 2) Ability to critically analyze and evaluate the ethical considerations surrounding AI. 3) Increased awareness of real-world AI applications and their potential impacts on various stakeholders. 4) Improved research and analytical skills. 5) Strengthened ability to engage in ethical discussions and debates. 6) Actionable recommendations for promoting responsible AI development and usage.

Literature, Social Science, Business, Finance

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

Simran

Creating Business Models with NFTs

NFTs enable true digital ownership of assets in digital worlds. However, NFTs have unique properties that make traditional business models difficult and enable capabilities that are not obvious at first glance. Explore the current application of NFTs (digital identity, metaverse, gaming, etc) and how they can be used in future use cases.

Engineering, Business

Brandon

Charting a Greener Future for Tourist Havens

I'm an expert in economic development and international finance and have spent years studying the intersection of environmental conservation and economic advancement. With biodiversity increasingly under threat from the very tourists they attract, how can policymakers balance environmental conservation and tourism promotion in key areas? For this project, we'll collect public data like hotel occupancy rates as well as environmental indicators like water quality and biodiversity from major tourist destinations. We'll map this data using geographic information systems (GIS) software to identify areas where tourism and threats to biodiversity overlap. Using this information, we'll create a research paper identifying the effects of tourism on local biodiversity and lay out alternate development strategies to promote sustainable economic and environmental growth.

Economics, Creative Writing, Business, Finance

Reid

Write a Business Case

Identify a company that you would love to learn more about. Then, we can work together to get in touch with people working at the company and developing interview questions for them. After your interviews, you can put together a business case identifying a way in which you think the business was successful or unsuccessful at approaching a challenge. Possible final product: business case (a style of academic paper used in business schools). This is especially relevant for students interested in general management, or who are excited about a particular company or industry.

Business

Alexandra

How Is X Trend Affecting the Technology World

We can take a look at a specific trend, and see how this is impacting the technology world. A few examples of trends that could be interesting: X= 1) Real time tracking (take a look at on demanding tracking services) 2) Consumer lending (see how this affects next generation spending habits) 3) Privacy (and how this is affecting social media platforms) 4) Changing attention speed (and how this is affecting advertising spend and rates)

Engineering, Languages, Business

Cathy

The Psychological Effects of Opioid Use

Through this project, a student can research the psychological effects of opioid use through major psychology and medical journals. The student will write a research paper that could potentially be published.

Psychiatry, Social, Psychology, Philanthropy, Business, Organizational Leadership

Simran

Launch a Social Media Brand | Elevate LLC

Help me to expand my business on social media, including content design and marketing strategy across Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and any other relevant platforms.

Creative Writing, Business

Ben

How has Modern U.S. Religion Evolved?

Understanding recent trends in U.S. religion is critical to providing culturally-tailored services in both healthcare and other nonprofit fields. This project will analyze both publicly available data and key texts to describe recent trends in religious affiliation and identity.

Biology, Arts, Healthcare, Business

Avery

2. Personal Finance 101

As a consumer of all things finance, I've developed a passion for personal finance and budgeting. In this project you'll be tasked with creating a personal finance plan for a specific period of time and you'll learn how to budget, and the basics of investing. Moreover, you'll gain invaluable skills in reading financial reports, preparing a budget, and developing life long habits that will serve you for years to come.

Business, Finance

Alexander

Business/ School Process Optimization Project

This project could apply to a local small business or a process within your school. The goal is optimize (make more efficient/ run better or smoother) a process that is important to a small business or organization within your school. The steps include: 1. Process Discovery: Meet with target client and interview them about the processes that they find especially difficult or take more time than they believe it should. 2. Select the Process: Receive buy-in from client group on which process should be the focus. 3. Benchmarking: Collect data on how the process is currently performing at client location. If feasible, also collect data on performance of other sites. 4. Develop Enhancements: Design enhancements to the process in coordination with stakeholders. 5. Optimization Analysis: Perform calculations on the expected increases in productivity. 6. Present Findings: Meet with stakeholders to present findings, enhancements, and analysis and receive buy-in for implementing changes.

Business, Organizational Leadership

Keeping Dementia Patients Safe from Financial Exploitation

Challenge: Often, patients suffering in the early stages of dementia (as well as Alzheimer's and mild cognitive decline) have unfettered access to their finances and can be persuaded by predatory scammers into giving money away. Potential research and design process: We could start with a competitive/comparative review. What are the solutions today that already exist and target the same or similar challenge? What works? What doesn't work? What can we learn from their work? Output: We could create a mobile/web app that helps families monitor their loved ones' financial activity to keep them safe. Or, this could be a pitch deck for a startup company that focuses on this problem space.

History, Business

Melissa

Community engagement platform

Creating a community engagement platform for high school students. This project will involve designing and developing a website that serves as a hub for students to connect, share resources, collaborate on projects, and engage in various activities.

Music, Arts, Business

Maxwell

Using machine learning algorithms to predict volunteer turnover

Turnover, or employees quitting an organization, is a key issue for most employers, and much prior research has examined the various job-related predictors of turnover. However, few have explored the effect of non-cognitive predictors (e.g., role ambiguity, satisfaction with colleagues) on turnover, especially among volunteer populations. Such research is particularly important with volunteers, who generally lack traditional motivators such as pay or lack of alternative options. Moreover, few studies have employed modern machine learning methods to examine the relative importance of different predictors. This study tests 14 different machine learning models on a large sample of volunteers, using a set of non-cognitive variables to predict turnover.

Psychology, Business, Statistics, Organizational Leadership

Steven

Building a Product/Business Tracker

There are so many trackers out there - Trello, JIRA, Monday.com, etc, but they just don't quite...work for what you want for your business or startup. Together, we can identify what you want from your tracker (do you want to track business goals as well as engineering/coding goals) and build a tracking/planning platform that is bespoke to your needs!

Computer Science, Business

Nathan

An IoT-powered Framework to Assist Mission Control

First responders and military members risk their lives for us. However, I personally witnessed in several occasions that their mission control operations are done using a white-board. I believe this is not a sufficient method, and a more advanced method is required. Therefore, I propose wearable modules powered by the long-range wireless tool named Sigfox that ranges around a couple of kilometers. The wearable modules will have sensors, such as GPS, and vital health information. First responder information will be transmitted to a mobile application that will display each unit's location on the map and their health status. Currently, there are two startups working in this area, and I believe they're making a very positive impact.

Engineering, Computer Science, Business

Berkay