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
What's the best way to paint a picture?
In protein structural biology, scientists use different methods to find out information about what a protein looks like at the atomic level, essentially "painting a picture" of that protein in 3D space. In this project, we'll be exploring the wonderful world of protein structures and the work that scientists do to figure out what that structure is. By examining the structure of a protein that has been solved via multiple methods (including experimental and computational predictions), students will discover the strengths and drawbacks of different structural biology techniques and decide for themselves which method is best.
Biology, Chemistry
Comparing Citizen Science observations and water quality data
Citizen science is a very valuable tool as it supplements existing data by obtaining data from a wider population and it also promotes science in a community. For this project, we could use data from a beach monitoring citizen science project and water quality obtained by a separate organization to analyze the trends between the citizen science observations and the water quality measurements taken over time. This would involve data analysis, perhaps making some maps, and likely a write-up of findings.
Biology, Engineering, Chemistry
Industrial Proteins
There are several proteins used in industry that need to be produced and purified at large scales. For example, the antibodies used in antibody treatments are proteins. There are several challenges associated with large-scale production of proteins considering their biological nature. For this project, you will study a certain protein used in industry, investigate the current production process, and determine how the process can be made more efficient.
Biology, Engineering, Chemistry
AI in the field of Biology
Students can write a research paper on how they believe artificial will affect biology research in the next couple of decades. How will such a rise of AI affect current experiments and techniques? What skills do students need to equip themselves with to carry productive research in the upcoming years?
Biology, Chemistry
Measuring impact of physician-scientists on innovation, research, and economy
Physician-Scientists (individuals trained both in medicine and in research) have long played an integral part of the biomedical workforce to drive and develop research from the bedside to the bench and back to the bedside. However, there is limited research available to objectively quantify the impact of this workforce over time, and what factors influence their training and careers. What are ways that we can use more publicly available information and databases to determine the impact of this particular portion of the biomedical research workforce on innovation by translating their research from ideation to IP generation to startup / commercialization? What are the types of information that is needed to not only determine their impact but also the return on the investments from the federal government and society on developing this particular workforce? The potential outcomes of this research can range from new programming tools for data collection and analysis, new web apps for visualizing the data, and/or research paper summarizing the current state of the field.
Physics, Engineering, Chemistry, Business, Medicine
The role of glycans in human health and disease
Glycans (sugars) are one of the main building blocks of life, along with proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. But, compared to the other classes, glycans have been incredibly understudied. Where as proteins and DNA have advanced methods for sequencing and visualization, numerous limitations still persist with studying sugars. This project will give students the opportunity to learn about the incredible role of these complex molecules in human health and disease. Along with learning about their importance students can learn the different methods for studying glycans and how crucial they are for the proper function of drugs.
Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry
How Do Face Masks Impair The Way Humans Read Emotions
COVID-19 has spread across the world, changing our way of life and forcing us to wear face masks. Early research indicates that face masks influence the human ability to infer emotions by observing facial configurations. This project will add to what we know about the impacts to human development and social interactions due to the prevalence of face masks. This project could be a literature review or contribute original research in the form of a) large-scale attitudinal survey, b) behavioral assessment of a particular population not well-understood (e.g. teens), c) long-term impacts and accommodation strategies.
Chemistry
How aging changes the immune and cardiovascular systems
Aging changes a lot of things is the body including your immune system. The immune system is important for protecting us against pathogens. How does aging change our responses to different pathogens? This project would investigate how pathogens differently (or similarly) impact the immune response of young and old individuals.
Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry
Intro to using scientific datasets
Public bioinformatic data resources such as those provided by The Cancer Genome Atlas and DEPMAP are widely used by almost all researchers studying human disease. These datasets help give us insight into what genes and programs might be the most important for certain cancers and can give us ideas for what to target therapeutically. In this project, we will use the programming language R to analyze public data to answer a specific research question regarding cancer genes and dependencies.
Biology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Chemistry
Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine
Do you have an interest in the advancement of regenerative medicine? Or maybe how tissues can regrow in some organisms but not others? This project can be catered to fit your specific interests regarding stem cells and regenerating tissues. We will work to write a review paper on current understandings of the field and submit for publication in a journal of your choosing!
Biology, Chemistry
Central Dogma Board game
Expand upon your current understanding of topics related to biology, chemistry, genetics, and evolution by building a board game that makes complex concepts fun and accessible to the general public. At the intersection of science and education, you will design and build a board game centered around the central dogma of molecular biology (how DNA transcribes RNA to make protein) and how alterations in the coding and non-coding regions affect development and contribute to evolution. In this project, you will break down biochemical processes and demonstrate how small changes in genotype can lead to variations in phenotype.
Biology, Chemistry
Designing and completing a research project
In this project, you will be a scientist and go through the entire process of a research project. You will craft a research question, write an introduction and background section by gathering scientific journal articles related to your topic, design a research method, collect data, complete statistical analyses, and interpret your results and their significance to the related field of research. This project will provide insight into the career of a scientist and a research student studying science. The final outcome of this project could be a poster presentation or a final written product such as a scientific journal article or report.
Biology, Languages, Chemistry, Public Health
Comparative Species Neurobiological Review
The focus of this project is to develop a framework to understand how neuroanatomy or behavior is similar in many ways across species, yet have been adapted to fit the needs of various ecological niches. You will learn to write a scientific review about biological systems or behaviors manifested in a number of species and develop striking figures to get your understanding across. This project may span neurochemicals to neural circuits to behavior and cognition, depending on your interests. My work is centered on acetylcholine receptor expression in the primate visual system, so work related to neurotransmitters and sensory areas could be highly productive though I would be thrilled with any new topics you are excited about. Examples of topics might be recognition of conspecifics, motor systems between animals that fly/swim, neurochemicals in insect aggression, anatomical differences in somatosensory areas, etc.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Chemistry
Coral Reef Health
Formulating your own research ideas can seem like a daunting task from afar but is a lot more manageable once you start brainstorming. A project idea we could work on can involve using existing datasets to tackle an ecological question. For example, using a dataset to analyze coral reef health over time and assess impacts (i.e., bleaching events, disturbances, high temperatures, etc.) by doing basic statistical analysis. This project will involve learning to use excel and potentially R to run statistics. But don’t be scared about having to use math if you're interested in marine science. There are many resources that can help explain statistics, or we could look at the social dimensions of reefs, management, and conservation by analyzing environmental policy instead. There’s so many approaches that you can take to focus on your own strengths or what you hope to learn and improve on.
Computer Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science
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
Understanding Traditional Medicinal Plants through Modern Science
The field of ethnobotany takes inspiration from plants used in traditional medicines as a starting point for further research. This project would begin by picking a traditional culture with documented medicinal plants. I would help the student find some plants of interests based on the traditional use and then survey the literature for what kinds of molecules are found in the plant. From there, these different classes of molecules could be further studied using current scientific literature to hypothesize which chemicals in the plant might be responsible for its therapeutic capabilities. This could culminate in a final report walking through the process of discovery. Through this project, students would be able to learn more about other cultures, how to search the scientific literature, and how to form scientific hypotheses.
Biology, Chemistry
Use Reinforcement Learning to Play a Game
In this project, you will delve into the world of artificial intelligence by using reinforcement learning techniques to teach a computer program to play a game. You'll begin by selecting a game, such as a classic Atari game or a simple board game, and set up a suitable environment for training your AI agent. You will then learn about the fundamentals of reinforcement learning, including concepts like Q-learning, Deep Q-Networks (DQN), and exploration-exploitation trade-offs. You'll implement a training algorithm that enables the AI agent to learn game strategies and improve its performance over time. As the project progresses, you will analyze the agent's performance, identify areas for improvement, and fine-tune your model.
Computer Science, Chemistry, AI/ML
Cancer health disparities
Unfortunately, many studies have shown that race and gender can affect the level of care cancer patients receive which ultimately affects their survival chances. In this project, you can research a specific area of disparity and its affects on cancer patients. Next, you can propose a strategy to overcome the disparity using knowledge of cancer medicine and public health policy.
Biology, Cancer, Chemistry
Applied machine learning on chemical datasets to predict new drugs
Use publicly available datasets of drug-like molecules and their activity for specific targets to predict new drugs that are more active than those already known. For example, try to predict the efficacy of new cancer therapeutics. This project will give you hands on experience with different types of machine learning algorithms and teach you how to select the best algorithm for a particular problem. Prerequisite: Experience in R or python is preferred though other languages could be suitable and basic chemistry/biology.
Chemistry, AI/ML
Increasing the resistant starch content of French Fries using dehydration and retrogradation.
French fries are a high-glycemic food that is ubiquitously available and excessively consumed. This study utilized the processes of dehydration and retrogradation of potatoes before frying to increase the content of resistant starch (RS) in French fries. RS is not digested or absorbed in the upper gastro-intestinal tract and passes to the large intestine where it is fermented into largely beneficial products by the microbiome. An increase in RS potentially translates into a lower-glycemic index and calorific value, thereby mitigating the onset and symptoms of metabolic disease. This project is complete and is published in the Journal of High School Science at https://jhss.scholasticahq.com/article/3703-increasing-the-resistant-starch-content-of-french-fries-using-dehydration-and-retrogradation
Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry
