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
Narrative Tour
Pick a place, this can be your hometown or somewhere you have never been to before (use Google Streetview), use media and writing to represent a walking tour that traverses through an interesting part of the city. Notice buildings, infrastructure, shops public art, and public life. How would you talk about their significance to you or to others? This exercise involves using media to represent the built environment and using narrative to reveal the culture and history embedded in the built environment.
Photography, Illustration
Costume Design
This project involves developing a costume design concept for theatre or film from initial concept sketches and visual research to technical drawings by hand or in Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop
Fashion, Illustration
Design Research and Development
Design is rooted in problem solving and creating elegant solutions. Together we will identify an issue and do social research, analyze data and develop a design solution that can be integrated into daily life. Projects could include designing an app, website, product or virtually anything that needs fixing. Everything in our lives are designed, so lets design it better!
Illustration
Science Videos
Making 2-minute videos explaining research mentioned in scientific papers by reading and understanding various scientific papers on any topic of interest.
Neuroscience, Illustration
Fashion Collection
Develop a concept for a fashion line. Make moodboards, swatch cards, technical drawings, and fashion sketches of your finished collection.
Fashion, Illustration
Historical fashion Research
This project involves learning how to conduct research and sketch technical drawings to produce historically accurate reproductions of clothing from a particular time period (for example: Regency era, Edwardian period, 1930's, 1950's). Depending on the student's previous experience, this project could also have a sewing component.
Fashion, Illustration
Self Published Book
Have you ever said, "One day I'll write my own book"... well today could be that day. We will work together to create content in the form of creative writing or graphics, design/ sequence your content into a book with digital tools, and ultimately finish with a printed and bound volume of your own creation. We will start by choosing a genre for the book and researching books that are in a similar mode and scope of what you're interested in. We'll look particularly at layout, cover design, and sequence strategies. Next, we will develop your own original content, revising and editing along the way. Then, we will synthesize our research and original content into a book form in Adobe InDesign or Acrobat. Finally, we will design the cover and binding for the book so it is a cohesive expression of your work as an author and artist. You'll walk away from this project with your own self-published book and the knowledge to continue publishing your work!
Illustration
1 - 3 Album Songs
Have a concept for an album in mind but can't seem to put notes to paper? Or, do you have a couple songs but want to find a way to tie them together into a larger concept? These are all great and exciting places to be in, and I would love to help you manifest your visions!
Music, Creative Writing, Illustration
Illustrate your Day
As a daily exercise, I want you to pick out your favorite sketchbook, portable, please! What you will do is a sketch with pencil items that impact your every day. Compose them on the page. Play with dimensions. Enter the world of Salvador Dali. Is the time running away? Then make it run. Use a waterproof pen to play with line weight. Add patterns and texture. Then when you have the time later in the day add dashes of watercolor to your liking. No need to stay inside the line. Be wild. Keep space for some journaling. See your day come alive as the day comes to an end.
Creative Writing, Illustration, Animation
#2: Policy brief: replace high-sugar consumables in vending machines with healthier options
Many low-cost processed foods have high amounts of sugar and other artificial additives. For some families, especially those who are low-income, purchasing cheap foods is a preferred economic method. However, consuming high levels of sugar and other additives predisposes one to diabetes, obesity, cavities, and other health complications. High levels of consumption should be prevented early on in life to reduce the likelihood of addiction. Vending machines at schools are a prime target. This project would require an investigation of how frequently students consume unhealthy drinks and snacks from vending machines, and to collect student insights on how they believe that consuming vending machine foods has impacted their family's or their own health. The outcome of this project would be creating an effective policy brief to present to the school administration.
Illustration, Public Health
Making fun science zines/ books
Through my online platform Fuzzy Synapse, I have worked before on cell biology zines, I would like to teach the art of communicating various science topics in a fun and easy way in this project. We would work together to design various interesting, artistic zines on any scientific topic of interest. Also, depending on the interest of the student, we can also aim to transform the content into science illustration book.
Neuroscience, Illustration
Digital Application Design
Digital apps for our phones, tablets, and computers are increasingly diverse, expressive and easy to use. Good application design is behind this progress and essential to creating a pleasant experience for the user. We will work together to design the visual interface and user experience for your own digital application, ending with an interactive prototype. Our process will begin with learning about design systems and layout strategies through exercises withing Adobe XD. We'll do a deep dive into some apps that you love in order to learn what makes them so lovable, from their design strategy to the visual systems we will dissect their visual elements. Then you will come up with an original app idea, together we will create wireframes, user stories, and ultimately a completed interactive prototype of your app.
Illustration
#3: A multi-country comparison of health systems
This would be a comparison of the health systems of various countries of choice. Through this investigation, students would learn about a country's healthcare priorities, which insurance options are most popular, and the effectiveness of the healthcare systems (considering variables such as cost of insurance premiums, cost of healthcare services, coverage of healthcare services, and types of healthcare services that are most commonly used). After analyzing the pros and cons of each country's health system, the student would develop their own model of an effective health system.
Illustration, Public Health
5-10 Minute Play/Musical
Write a short piece for up to seven characters. Can be a one-act, or part of a larger concept. The complexity of the project is something we would work out together - your job is to dream big and let your imagination run wild, and my job is to help you figure out how to make it work. I like to think that anything is possible in the world of theatre, and it is not a question of "if," but rather a question of "how."
Music, Creative Writing, Illustration
Mentorship for a Work Already in Progress
Do you already have a project you are passionate about and need help finishing, or figuring out the next steps? If so, I would love to be your mentor!
Music, Creative Writing, Illustration
#1: Barriers and facilitators to accessing appropriate and timely healthcare
Disparities and inequities in healthcare stem from forces such as discrimination, racism, and lack of governmental support. However, while there are generic interventions that can be implemented, these solutions must be appropriate and relevant to the community of interest in order to make a significant impact. This project would require an in-depth analysis of societal or structural challenges to accessing adequate healthcare, as well as any existing practices or policies that promote it. The goal would be to identify a model that is culturally competent for the setting and community served.
Illustration, Public Health
Understanding The Brain In and Out
In this project, we will read, understand, and design summaries of neuroscience research papers in the form of single-page doodle illustration. We can then compile and communicate the research of various paper together in form of a series.
Neuroscience, Illustration
10 minute writing from the soul: what will it reveal?
Inspiration is found deep within. What do you remember? Write. Let your fingers dance. Remember something in detail? Bus driving by your house? Write it. Let your consciousness flow through you. Write as much as you can. Exercise a little creativity and elaborate. Let's take a look at what comes out and then let us draw and paint.
Creative Writing, Illustration, Animation