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
How the state of the brain impacts neural processing and behavior
Let's imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: you are sitting in the back of a classroom and the room is warm and cozy. As the teacher/professor is explaining a boring topic, your attention drifts in and out and you process little of what is being discussed. Scenario 2: Your crush is standing 10 feet away from you and whispering something to a friend. Their conversation is very faint but you process and remember every little detail that you can overhear. These are two different scenarios where your brain is in completely distinct internal attention/arousal states. These differences in brain states, which can be internally driven (sleepy or alert, sad or happy) or external (engaging in physical activity versus sitting on the couch), impact all aspects of neural processing from responsiveness to sensory stimuli to processing of the meaning of the stimuli to decision making. On a daily basis, our internal and external states fluctuate all the time and are, unknown to us, impacting all aspects of our lives. Interestingly, neural chemicals in the brain such as dopamine, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine play a big role in the state dependent modulation of brain activity. We can explore the role of these arousal states on neural processing and behavior by writing a review paper or hosting a series of podcasts or creating blogs on the topic. We can also do some fun at-home experiments on ourselves or family and friends, such as whether running or other physical exercise improves sensory perception or memory! Or maybe there is an activity that makes you happy and boosts your dopamine levels, like eating chocolate or shopping or playing video games, do those activities improve your sensory perception and performance?
Neuroscience, Cognitive
The Science Behind Where's Waldo
There are two main types of attentional mechanisms; endogenous attention where attention is deployed based on task demands and exogenous attention where attention is captured by salient stimuli. Games like Where’s Waldo exploits the former, by surrounding filling the page with characters and objects that have black and white stripes, wear glasses, and have red hats. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying attention can help explain how exogenous/endogenous attention are deployed, while also providing insight into other attentional phenomena such as change blindness and inattentional blindness.
Neuroscience, Cognitive
Leveraging Psychology to Help Bridge Political Divides
Over the past few decades, Americans have become increasingly polarized. How can we take insights from psychology to help people better understand those who are "on the other side" of the political spectrum? This project could involve reading articles/books, interviewing exercises, and more to identify potential interventions. It could take the form of a research paper, research transformed into a blog post, video or podcast format, or an online survey where we collect our own data.
Social, Cognitive
Build a biophysical model of a neuron
Build a biophysical computational model of a neural activity with Python or MATLAB (or Octave).
Neuroscience, Physics
Conduct your own psychological experiment
Have you ever wondered if spending time on social media can impact your mood or if listening to music actually helps you study? In this project, students will learn how to design and implement their very own psychological research study. Students will start with a research question on a topic that sparks their curiosity and develop a hypothesis after conducting a review of the relevant literature. We will work together to carefully design your methods, develop a plan for data collection, and use various statistical techniques to analyze the data you collect!
Neuroscience, Cognitive
1.) Social Behavior Literature Review
An integral component of conducting scientific research is being able to understand and think critically about other people’s work in the field. A literature review is a great way to hone these skills. Literature reviews entail choosing a topic, reading multiple articles about that topic, and then not only summarizing, but synthesizing or drawing conclusions based on the work you’ve read. I have a lot of experience writing literature reviews, including one that was published in a prestigious neuroscience journal. What’s great about literature reviews is that you don’t have to already be an expert in the field to write one. Let’s say, for example, that you’re really interested in rodent social behavior. I would guide you in organizing, researching, and writing a review about it. We’d start with a discussion of what exactly you hope the review achieves. What is your angle? Your scope? Maybe you want to look into a mouse model of a specific neurological disorder, such as autism. You would start your review with a more general introduction and background information about the disorder, social behavior associated with the disorder, and where the field currently stands in terms of autism social behavioral research. This is still pretty general though, and there’s so much to explore! Within your review, you can then choose topics to expand on within your chosen field. There are different types of social behavior, for example. You may want to write separate sections regarding maternal behavior, playmates, mating, aggression, etc. And what about the brain’s involvement? You could include other sections of your review that focus specifically on brain regions, mutations, or other biological factors involved in social behavior, and how they are altered in autism. Maybe you want to take a more technical standpoint, and review current methods being used to study social behavior in a lab setting. I, of course, would guide you through all of this—from helping you pick your topic and outline the sections of your review, to navigating online databases and choosing articles, to helping you understand the more difficult scientific components and significance of the studies mentioned. The direction of a review can even change over time as you do more and more research. Maybe you were writing a section about the involvement of the hippocampus, but as you were reading you found the amygdala to be just as interesting. I’ll help you stay organized to ensure that your review flows well and doesn’t seem disjointed. The literature review was one of my favorite components of writing my undergraduate thesis and graduate research proposals. You’ll need this skill for the rest of your career if you plan to continue with academic research. Even if you don’t, the research and critical thinking skills you’ll learn from this project will be extremely valuable for any future career you may choose.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
Sleep improvements in a new model of Alzheimer's disease
My research is focused on targeting the endocannabinoid system to improve sleep phenotypes in a model of AD. I have created a new genetically altered mouse that we hope will show improved sleep phenotypes. We use a sleep system in our lab to measure sleep and this data is available for analysis. After I have monitored sleep in these animals we will work together to analyze the sleep data and generate sleep traces, total hourly sleep amounts and assess quality of sleep in these new mice. This experiment will introduce you to data analysis, making figures and presenting data. You will also gain insights into sleep behavior in mice.
Neuroscience, Psychology
What is the effect of noise distraction on test scores?
Essentially testing students' abilities to excel in a noisy enviornment. This will be done by designing a research experiment and completing a research project. 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.
Social, Psychology, Cognitive
Your Music Taste and You: Can Your Spotify Playlist Predict Your Personality?
This project seeks to understand the connection between musical preference and personality traits. We're particularly interested in investigating whether emotional responses to different music genres can serve as a predictor for certain personality attributes, such as extraversion and openness to experience. We plan to gather data through surveys and personality tests, analyzing them for correlations between musical preferences and personality traits. In the second stage of the project, we'll explore whether the patterns we find hold true across different cultural contexts, adding another layer of complexity to our research. If successful, our findings could pave the way for innovative, non-verbal, and culture-fair methods for personality assessment. Additionally, they could enrich our understanding of the psychological effects of music, offering a new perspective on how and why music is such a fundamental part of human culture.
Neuroscience, AI/ML, Cognitive
Writing a scientific review of a topic of your choice
In this project you will write a scientific review-style paper on a topic of your choice. This process will teach you how to find, access, and critically analyze existing scientific literature and how to assemble primary literature into a scientific review. You will gain skills in writing and editing, as well as an in-depth knowledge of your chosen research topic.
Social, Psychology, Cognitive
Bioinformatics
In this project, students will learn about RNA-seq and how to analyze and interpret data from these experiments. This includes providing a foundational introduction to quality control, alignment, and other data processing steps found in bioinformatics pipelines. Students will then use publicly available gene expression data (e.g. Allen Cell Types Database) to generate plots and analyze gene expression in the assayed cells.
Biology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Math
Optical illusions and other quirks of the visual system
Have you ever wondered how optical illusions work and why sometimes our perception strays from reality? In this project you will explore the neural mechanisms behind several common optical illusions and other oddities we may notice in our visual perception. You will also delve into some critical processes of the visual system such as color and depth perception.
Neuroscience
Sensory Overload and Mental Health
The aim of this project will be a complete literature review of the current evidence regarding sensory information of social media apps and the effects it has on mental health. This project will require you to draft a literature review and you will need access to literature sources. The final product will be a complete publishable journal review paper that explains the relationship between social media usage and mental health and disorders.
Neuroscience
Working Memory Decline and Psychological Distress in Men and Women with Alzheimer's Disease Dementia
Organizations like AlzPossible, ADNI, and NACC provide access to open-source databanks with Alzheimer's-related data from around the country (neuroimaging, neuropsychological outcomes, disability status, neuropsychiatric symptoms, demographic variables, etc.). One way to analyze these data could be to look at the working memory differences in men and women with Alzheimer's Disease, differences in psychological distress in men and women with Alzheimer's Disease dementia, and to evaluate if correlations exist between working memory decline and psychological distress in men and women with Alzheimer's Disease. Is the correlation between working memory and psychological distress different in men and women with Alzheimer's disease? Understanding this association could lead to differential interventions for men and women with Alzheimer's Disease that target working memory differentially, based on how working memory decline affects psychological distress.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive
Comparing Saliency Prediction Models with Real Eye Movement Data
When looking at a complicated picture, certain features pop out and draw our attention; these attention-grabbing features are referred to as "salient". But how do we choose where to look first in a crowded scene? Are people generally consistent in the patterns they use to look at pictures? Can we predict salient locations based on nothing more than image properties at the pixel-level, or does saliency also depend on semantic meaning and goal-directed behavior? We will explore these questions and more, using open-source human eye movement data and several kinds of gaze prediction models. Students will learn how to predict human eye movement data using computational models, and will be able to compare these predictions with real data. Prerequisites: Prior programming experience, especially in MATLAB, is highly recommended. However, highly-motivated students with no prior coding experience, who express interest in spending additional time learning foundational MATLAB skills, are also encouraged.
Neuroscience, AI/ML, Cognitive
Using research-based methods to support word and category learning
Children’s vocabulary rapidly expands during their preschool years. There are lots of factors that contribute to word and category learning, and many can be directly applied by the adults teaching them these new concepts. For this project, you will research the factors that facilitate children’s learning and create a learning opportunity (e.g., a book, podcast, experiment) that effectively utilizes these findings to successfully teach children new concepts. The project will culminate in a research paper detailing your proposal, how you plan to test it, what you expect to find.
Creative Writing, Cognitive
To Fight or Flight? That is the question.
Our brains are wired from birth to respond to threats found in our immediate environment. These threat-activated circuits are responsible for regulating what is commonly referred to as our "Fight or Flight System". However, not everyone responds the same way to the same exact threat and not all behavioral responses are appropriate for the given conditions (e.g. fleeing from a friendly chihuahua may not be adaptive). What accounts for these differences in behavior? One explanation for these observed distinct behaviors is differences in past experience. How does previous experience affect our threat responding? In this project, we will read various peer-reviewed journals to gain an understanding of how researchers have looked at experience (i.e. stress) and its effect on brain activity in the presence of threats. We can explore this question by looking into: 1) Human research of patients with stress-induced psychiatric disorders (i.e. depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD). We will explore questions like, how do scientists measure human brain activity before and after stress? 2) Mouse research literature to learn about laboratory techniques used to assess defensive behaviors in response to threats. We will explore various ways to interpret research done with rodents and see how we can use this to learn more about human conditions.
Neuroscience
Social Media and Mental Health Disorders
Social media is not going anywhere. We often discuss the mental health implications of the pervasiveness of social media, particularly for adolescents, but there is no definitive research as to the effects of time spent on specific social media outlets on specific symptoms. Surveying a moderate-sized group of young individuals as to their social media usage, and overlaying this data with a relevant, evidence-based questionnaire could help us understand specific adverse (or beneficial) effects that are associated with social media engagement.
Psychiatry, Music, Nutrition, Public Health
Natural methods to help repair brain cell damage
Compile a list of sources of independent methods to improve recovery from neuronal injury and then create a lifestyle plan that people can use to implement all the methods. This can be applicable for people recovering from a stroke, car crash, or CTE from sports induced head injuries.
Biology, Neuroscience
Moral Cognitive Decision Making in U.S. Politics
This proposed study could examine the intersection between morality and social decision making in relation to political moral conviction and its potential to predict congressional decisions. The overall goal for the study would be to curate research facilitating national harmony endeavoring an advancement in peoples’ cognitive capacities at empathizing for those who are less fortunate, marginalized, and degraded through the creation, enforcement, and evaluation of U.S. laws.
Neuroscience, Social, Psychology, Social Science, Cognitive
