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
Review of Psychology & Physical Health Outcomes
As a health psychology graduate student, I am trained to understand how psychosocial factors (e.g., happiness, anger, loneliness, socioeconomic status) impact individuals' physical health. For students with similar interests, we can write a systematic review paper focused on a psychosocial factor of interest and the body systems through which it affects physical health. Through this project, students will become familiar with using Google Scholar for literature searches, learn how to assess the quality of academic sources (e.g., using metrics such as journal quality, citations, recency, and research methods), and learn how to summarize the literature in an academic review paper. These skills can benefit students as they begin taking upper-division college courses and those who go on to participate in research labs where assisting graduate students or professors with literature search and writing is required. The final project will be a review paper that could be submitted as a journal article.
Social, Psychology
Exploring the Literature on Disability in other Cultures
Disability has many definitions, thus rendering its lack of clarity. What's more unknown, however, is how disability is defined in other cultures. We will first, investigate the literature on how disability is defined, and second, identify how these varied definitions of disability are defined in different cultural contexts.
Social, Psychology, Cognitive
The Proof is in the (Research) Pudding
Are you interested in finding out the psychological effects of the current social system and policies on the people? Do you want to come up with projects which could possibly show why a certain public policy is better than the other? Would you be interested in finding out how to possibly increase adherence to public health mandates? I can help you design such studies which intersect politics, public policy, and psychology. This project can have real-world applications and can culminate in a conference paper, a journal article or an oral presentation.
Social, Cognitive
Coping with contamination obsessions during COVID-19
This idea would allow the student to investigate the effects of COVID-19 and how people cope, specifically with contamination given its relevance due to the pandemic. With the outcome of a scientific research paper, the student could begin with exploring some of the current literature before designing a questionnaire using validated scientific measures to collect data from peers. Once collected, these data could be analyzed, reported, and interpreted in a scientific research article.
Social, Psychology, Cognitive
Blog Series on Mental Health (or other social issues)
Lets work together to create a series of blogs that build your writing skills and promote the researcher within you! We can think through which key topics to focus on based on data reports and reviewing literature on current rates of conditions among a specific population of your choice. Once we finalize our topics, we would draft brief blogs that describe the current evidence, best practices for prevention, and share your own viewpoints based on what you learned. Then we can offer publication opportunities at Polygence or find other spaces to promote your work.
Social, Psychology, Statistics
Literature Review & Poster
Mentee will learn to find and understand existing research papers to deepen their knowledge of a topic of interest (e.g., how might a poor quality romantic relationship impact physical health), and will learn to consolidate their findings into a research poster presentation and brief research talk.
Social, Psychology
The Persuasive Potential of Message Framing, Temporal Orientation, and Self-Affirmation in Anti-Vaping Campaigns
This is a project I am currently working on that aims to better understand what aspects of anti-vaping messages are most persuasive. Additionally, the project looks to establish how successful certain messages might be in changing attitudes and behaviors among individuals who use e-cigarettes.
Social, Psychology, Quantitative, Social Science, Public Health
Correctional Officers’ Potential Empathy Deficiency: Its Regressive Contributions to Racial Adversities in the U.S. Prison System
This study could challenge the ubiquitous pattern of race and ethnicity implicated in the maltreatment towards Black criminals. The goal for the study would be to empirically assess how empathy changes in relation to social groups-- like race-- and how their maltreatment is a major contributor to fatal psychological disorders in the U.S. prisons.
Neuroscience, Social, Psychology, Social Science, Cognitive
Exercise & Emotional Well-being: A Mixed Methods Project
There is a large body of literature linking exercise to emotional well-being (e.g., increased positive affect, reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms, improved focus); however, further research is needed to understand what types of exercise are most beneficial for certain individuals (i.e., the "what works best for whom" question we are often asking in Psychology). The student will put together a brief (<5 minute) anonymous web-based survey to be distributed to their peers. We will ask at least 20 participants to rate how stressed, sad, happy, and calm they feel on a scale from (0) not at all to (5) extremely each day for five consecutive days. Each day, we will also ask them whether they exercised and, if so, what type of exercise they participated in and for how long. On the last day only, we will ask them to respond to a short open-response question asking them "what is your favorite type of exercise and why?" All study procedures will be approved by the IRB. We will then analyze the quantitative data using Excel or R statistics (depending on student preference) and use qualitative methods for the open-ended question to understand (1) how daily exercise affects mood and (2) what individuals believe is the "active ingredient" that makes their chosen form of exercise enjoyable. The student will develop a paper suitable for journal publication or a research symposium presentation to disseminate their findings. Through this project, the student will learn about survey design, measurement, IRB approval, statistics, and dissemination of research as they would in a college-level research methods class.
Social, Psychology
Shattering the Silence Campaign: Let's talk about adolescent mental health!
Why is it that we are comfortable talking about a headache but not the depression or anxiety causing it? Let's create a campaign in your school where students submit videos about the importance of talking about mental health and share words of affirmation To supplement, we can design a school-based mental health curriculum using culturally-responsive healing methods such as restorative justice and art therapy. This curriculum may be submitted to your district's leadership to advocate for student mental health and representation of student leadership in regional decision-making. It's time to stop the stigma! We will spend the first few sessions thinking about our own mental health, the factors influencing our mental health, and we envision a better world. Then, we will advocate for change in your community by bringing others into a public conversation.
Social
The Effect of Perceived Stress on Music Preferences and Listening Habits
Through furthering our understanding of the role that our emotional state plays in music genre preferences and music listening habits, we can develop interventions to leverage music to improve mood and work performance. Specifically, understanding the role of stress in music genre preferences and music listening habits could be leveraged in interventions to reduce stress and improve performance at work or school. The student will put together a brief (<5 minute) single-session anonymous web-based survey to be distributed to their peers. We will ask at least 20 participants to complete the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983), report how many hours a day they spend listening to music, and what music genres (e.g., Pop music, Hip hop music, Jazz, Rock) they listen to most frequently. All study procedures will be approved by the IRB. We will analyze the data using Excel or R statistics (depending on student preference). The student will develop a paper suitable for journal publication or a research symposium presentation to disseminate their findings. Through this project, students interested in psychology and music therapy will learn about survey design, measurement, IRB approval, statistics, and dissemination of research as they would in a college-level research methods class.
Social, Psychology
How do immigrants interact with one another? How do they shape the US?
Projects related to this question would examine how immigrants are shaping the US and how they are being shaped by the US. As immigrants continue to flow into the US and hail from increasingly diverse places, how do our understandings of diversity and interaction between immigrants change?
Social
My Academic Success Plan
This project will help answer the question, “What does your personal environment for success consist of?” By completing various activities that require a combination of personal reflection and research, students will systemically identify their personal values; short and long-term career goals; the environment they perform best in; time management skills, and overcoming procrastination and perfectionism. The product will be a 10-15 minute presentation in which student summarize their personal environment for success.
Social, Statistics
Measuring cross-cultural emotions
In this project, we will look into current and past techniques for conducting cross-cultural emotions research. We will compile a list of methods and scales and design a study using a subset of the measures we find.
Social, Psychology
My friend, the Lo-Fi Beats study girl
This project would investigate how people form bonds with animated characters they spend time with, such as with the popular live stream "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to"
Social, Psychology, Cognitive
How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
We are living in a time of deep divisions. Americans are sorting themselves along racial, religious, and cultural lines, leading to a level of polarization that the country hasn’t seen since the Civil War. But how, exactly, can this be done? You will learn about what institutions are important for maintaining a democratic society and how “social infrastructure” is helping to solve some of our most pressing societal challenges. You will also learn about network effects, heuristics and biases, and principles of community and belonging. You will research and write a paper on this topic, connecting concepts of social psychology and sociology of physical and digital spaces to propose a theory of how we can preserve democracy amidst the rise of individualism.
Social
Perceptions of therapy
Although many people would say that mental health counseling is helpful, many people have feelings or beliefs about going to therapy that prevent them from utilizing mental health resources. We can develop a project to explore the perceptions that your family, community, peers, or a specific population hold regarding mental health counseling. Do they believe therapy is important? Do they utilize therapy themselves? What do they think of others who utilize therapy? Once we understand the beliefs that discourage individuals from participating in therapy, we can come up with interventions that can challenge those beliefs and improve mental health outcomes!
Social, Psychology, Creative Writing, Social Science
Does learning about deepfakes put people in a distrusting mindset?
Have friends/volunteers take a survey where they learn about and watch deepfakes. Assign them to self-report on their feelings of distrust and see if they perform better on cognitive tasks that benefit from distrust either a) before learning about the deepfakes or b) after. See if learning about deepfakes led people to show greater signs of distrust. Note: my research has already tackled this question, but we can come up with another very doable idea like this one!
Social, Sports Analytics
cooperation and competition
The intertwined nature of cooperation and competition: How these processes can help survival, strengthen belonging, shape our interpersonal relationships, or lead to cross-cultural differences?
Social
Impact of K-Pop/Asian Media on Perceptions of Masculinity
This project explores how the popularization of K-Pop in western countries (i.e. BTS peaking at #1 on US Billboard in 2020) shapes perceptions of masculinity in the US. This is an increasingly interesting phenomenon as we explore how dominant ideas of masculinity are being challenged, especially at the college level (fraternities increasingly being disbanded by universities)! Even if you're not interested in K-pop specifically, this could be expanded to other forms of popular media like how Squid Game/Shang-Chi shapes masculinity. We can apply this to Asian American men specifically or compare other racial groups.
Social