core-program

pods

pathfinders

programs

about-us

program

team

careers

projects

mentors

project-ideas

blog

mentor-faq

scholars

reviews

symposium

research-archive

research-opportunities-for-high-school-students

showcasing-research-projects-why-is-it-important

research-for-college-applications-how-to-frame

true-meaning-of-test-optional-and-test-blind-admissions

publishing-vs-showcasing-your-research

research-paper-how-to

science-experiments-for-high-school-students-how-to-do-at-home

how-to-get-into-college

college-admissions-edge

how-to-stand-out-to-colleges

white-paper

passion-projects-examples

top-internships

Our next fall deadline is October 15, 2023 11:59pm PT. Apply today to lock in your spot!

10-session deep dive into a research topic of your choice

6-week research project with an expert and peers who share your passion

A career discovery experience with 3 expert mentors in your chosen fields

research-ideas-for-high-school-students

research-opportunity-guides

showcasing-opportunities

student-faq

for-mentors

for-educators

for-parents

resources

about

outcomes

With an increasing number of satellites being launched from Earth, the future of communication in space depends on quick algorithms that can estimate when and where it is best to communicate to a satellite around, for example, Mars.

Given a solar system, which consists of a number of stably orbiting planets, star(s), and satellites orbiting planets with some degree of control over their thrust, we want the satellites (around various planets) to rendezvous or communicate occasionally. 

First, we simulated the orbital mechanics of satellites and planets in the solar system using VPython, a simulation tool in Python. Using an optimization tool named GEKKO, we are currently transferring the simulation into a mathematical form. The new GEKKO model can be manipulated to handle as many satellites and planets as needed and is finally used to optimize parameters to find the optimum rendezvous point.

This complex system needs to consider the fuel constraints of satellites, trajectory of satellites required to cover areas of interest of different planets, planet positions, and other factors.

By converting the underlying math into a set of equations, we are attempting to develop a suitable algorithm for communication and the future of communication in space.

Machine Learning, Data Science, Aerospace Engineering

Optimizing Satellite Trajectories For Optimal Communication Across Planets

Mechanical Engineering Design, Computer science/programming, Robotics, Aviation, Rapid Prototyping, Machine Learning

While discussing my interests with my mentor, Shariq, it was clear that I wanted to focus on something related to international relations and real-world issues. My initial idea for this program was to write a simple research paper, however, after reviewing all the fun and exciting projects other Polygence students have done, I wanted to do something more creative. Having some written piece of work to go along with my project was something I wanted to have, so when brainstorming different ideas, I thought of making a children’s book. The book will focus on different immigrants’ stories illustrating their unique but also interconnected experiences while navigating their new lives in the US. The audience of this children’s book is children who feel different and want something to relate to. Since this book will be a children’s book, the topics covered and discussed on the surface should be simple, however, they will have deeper meanings. I have been in photography for the past 3 years and my absolute favorite pictures to take are basic images that have a much deeper meaning. I want this book to incorporate my photography, my writing, and immigrants’ personal stories.


Humanities, Social Sciences, Multiculturalism, Human Rights, Globalization, Sociology, Public Policy, Political Science, International Relations, Public Health, Ethnography, Religious Studies, Linguistics, Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies, Human Migration

Breast Cancer is a fast spreading disease where cells in the breast grow into a dangerous tumor. 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, about 250,000 of those women are under the age of 40. Although the exact cause of breast cancer is unknown, possible causes could be genetics, lifestyle factors, diet, etc. Alcohol is the most common cause of cancer because ethanol and acetaldehyde cause DNA to replicate incorrectly. Additionally, if someone is overweight, they have a higher chance of getting breast cancer at an older age because their estrogen levels are higher than others. Oral contraceptives and other birth control can increase risk for breast cancer because of hormone levels as well. Lastly, stress can cause cancer due to the response humans have to stress. For example, stress makes people want to eat more or drink more alcohol which can increase risk of getting cancer.

As aforementioned, genetics can account for a proportion of breast cancer diagnosis. Specifically, a person who has inherited a mutated BRCA gene has a 70% chance of getting breast cancer before the age of 80. This chance is about 53% higher than non-carriers. Everybody is born with one BRCA gene per parent (BRCA1 and BRCA2) which help fight possible cancer genes in one’s DNA. However, if one of these genes are abnormal, they could actually cause cancer instead of fighting off possible cancer genes. These mutated genes are called tumor suppressor genes and cause people to develop breast cancer at a relatively young age. Since we are aware that lifestyle factors play a role in the initiation of breast cancer, the crux of my review paper is to determine if lifestyle interventions such as stress relief, diet, and exercise can reduce a BRCA1/2 mutation carrier’s risk of getting breast cancer.

biology, cancer biology

If you are a carrier of the BRCA mutation, can certain lifestyle factors reduce your risk of getting cancer? (Stress, diet, exercise)

In *A Theory of Justice*, Rawls presented a picture of what he envisioned as just society that runs under favorable conditions that presume principles of justice, which were adopted under the veil of ignorance. The true principles of justice will be established in this respect since the veil of ignorance ensures that no one is disadvantaged or benefited by any factor, including contingencies, natural chance, or social circumstances. Rawls’s ideal theory has been challenged, particularly by realists, for a lack of contact with reality and recognition of the true character of humanity. Thus, the realists argue, the ideal theory does not apply to real-world environment, people, and institutions. In this paper, I will define the ideal theory, following Rawls, as a just society that occurs in a realistic utopia after all non-ideal factors have vanished. I will argue for the necessity of ideal theory on the grounds that it allows us to identify both humankind's limitations and potential while also serving as a guide to establishing a just society for which we must strive. I will further argue that ideal theory depicts a realistic utopia by combining realist and utopian features and I will demonstrate these features establishes both imaginable and achievable in the form of an exemplary just society. Finally, I will address and response to realism criticisms and offer some points on ideal theory that needs improvement.

Ethics, Political Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Interdisciplinary Work with Philosophy and the social sciences, Writing for the Humanities and Social Sciences

In Search of the Just: Reflections on John Rawls’s Ideal Theory

Although around 90% of Americans have experienced a traumatic event in their life qualifying for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), only 7% end up being diagnosed with PTSD. PTSD is a psychiatric disorder thought to be caused by a traumatic event in a person’s life. However, very few people that experienced a traumatic event end up developing PTSD symptoms, and this is hypothesized to be due to pre-existing physiological and psychological conditions.Treating PTSD is often difficult because there are a wide variety of symptoms affecting patients. The main four categories of symptoms are intrusive thoughts, physical irritability, avoidance, and negative emotions. The pre-existing conditions that make certain people more susceptible to develop PTSD include physiological symptoms such as low cortisol, and psychological symptoms such as a history of poor coping and low social support to deal with trauma. A particular reason it is difficult to conduct experiments and treat patients for PTSD is that it is confusing for individuals to recognize and recollect their trauma and accurately explain their symptoms. Understanding what trauma is and the variety of variables affecting how symptoms are interpreted by patients presents some of the many difficulties for researchers to understand the underlying causes of PTSD. Here we will review the relevant literature regarding pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for PTSD, including their limitations in efficacy and data collection.


Anything in Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, or Psychology (expertise in cognitive disorders)

Emotional Trauma and the Brain

Gokul will be working on a diabetes dataset where he will be using clinical patient features to predict if patients have diabetes or not. Gokul will be doing this using machine learning models. At the end of the project, he will have a biomarker and identify clinical features that are the most predictive of diabetes. From a technical perspective, Gokul will learn how to clean and model different types of data types. From a medical perspective, Gokul will learn more about the clinical features his models uses and how they relate to diabetes. 

Machine learning for clinical applications, Protein engineering, Immunoengineering, Cancer immunotherapy, Medicine, Biology, Computer Science

Predicting diabetes with clinical features

The students aim to answer the research question: How can we incorporate organisms into fashion and design to make it more sustainable? She will be making her own textile out of macroalgae harvested and dried from the intertidal, then designing a garment to go with this piece. She will also learn how to hypothetically bioengineer a microalga to perform in bioremediation. The student will use Adobe Illustrator to design each garment, and complete the project with a Powerpoint of her work. 

The modern fashion industry places more emphasis on affordability and efficiency over sustainability, making up about 10% of global carbon emissions. With cheap clothing costs and fast availability for customers, there has been growing support for fast-fashion. As a result, almost 3.8 billion pounds of clothes are thrown away every year. However, more and more people have begun to express environmental concerns with the rise of climate change, putting pressure on the fashion industry to adapt and find innovative ways to promote more sustainable practices. This, in part, can be enabled by the collaboration between designers and scientists to create textiles which are more sustainable and safe for the environment. Here we aim to create two textiles from micro- and macroalgae which can be used as a sustainable fabric alternative. We will theorize how microalgae can be used to create an eco-polyester by genetically modifying Nannochloropsis oceanica to produce more algaenan in its cell walls. Additionally, we will harvest macroalgae off the coast of Southern California, dry it, and combine it with agar and glycerol to create a  textile. We will then use our physical and theoretical textiles to design garments using Adobe Illustrator, offering possible alternatives to the harmful state of the current fashion industry.

Biology (molecular, environmental, fungal, plant, algal, etc), Fashion (design, marketing, etc), Music

Making and engineering sustainable textiles and fabric from macro- and microalgae.

This project is focused on exploring diseases driven by Down Syndrome and the causal evidence that support these hypotheses. This paper will collect and curate the various new papers that have been published over recent years to identify the different hypotheses in how Down Syndrome can lead to different diseases. Diseases that will be explored in this paper include Alzheimer's disease, leukemia, several metabolic diseases, etc. For each disease, the statistical connection, causal hypotheses and evidence will be investigated. The goal for this paper is to help scientists identify where current research is, the directions that are taken and the discoveries and patterns that have been identified over recent years.  

A review on pathologies of diseases driven by Down Syndrome 

This literature review examines youth homelessness in the United States. Included literature ranges from the late twentieth century to present day. This paper identifies the categories of youth who are most susceptible to experiencing youth homelessness, such as those who identify with the LQBTQ+ and/or the BIPOC communities. This paper also looks at the causes of homelessness, including youth who have experienced/witnessed domestic violence, as well as how the foster care system can play a role in homelessness. Finally, current housing solutions such as Housing First and Rapid Re-Housing are identified and explained.

Youth Homelessness in the United States

Natural language processing, computational social sciences, data science, machine learning

The human immune system does a remarkable job protecting us against foreign invaders like viruses and bacteria and over the last decade we have learned that it can also be effective in killing cancer cells. Cancer immunology is the study of how immune cells interact with cancer cells. Research in the last decade has shown that cancer cells can “hide” from the immune system allowing them to grow unbothered by our natural defense system.  Immunosuppressive proteins expressed by cancer cells as “stop” signals for our immune system when recognized by immune cells. The last 10 years have seen an increase in immunotherapeutic drugs which block these “stop” signals from working effectively turning the immune system back “on” and allowing our bodies to fight the growing tumor. Chemotherapy has been a life-saving treatment for a lot of cancer patients, however chemotherapy kills healthy cells as well as cancer cells. Immunotherapy’s promise is to effectively kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched making it the preferred treatment for cancer patients. This review paper will describe the background in cancer immunology detailing how the immune system normally finds foreign invaders, how it kills them, how cancer cells “hide” and how immunotherapeutic drugs stop them from “hiding”.

Proteins, medicine, immunology, cancer

The Cancer Treatment We've Been Looking For: Our Own Body

Katherine will be completing a literature review focused research paper on the key issues facing the study and treatment of eating disorder's today. In her paper, she will focus on 2-3 main themes. Right now, we have isolated those themes as (1) racial and ethnic disparities in the recognition and treatment of ED's, (2) better understanding the burden of those who care for someone with an ED, and (3) examining the effect of COVID-19 on eating disorder development, prevalence and treatment. Katherine will review all of the latest developments in these topics in order to make evidence based recommendations to stakeholders in the field, and will eventually summarize her findings through accessible, engaging, shareable infographics. 

Psychology; Journalism; Sociology; Cultural Analysis

Key Issues in the Contemporary Study of Eating Disorders

The thesis of this paper is that the age an individual develops financial literacy will positively impact one's wealth over their lifetime. Aditya surveyed roughly 100 people, gathering data on personal income, spending habits, investing habits, and the age they became financially knowledgeable. His data contradicts his thesis and shows that one's age is not a strong factor in financial responsibility. However, Aditya gained several valuable insights from his research to help government and academic institutions employ socially beneficial policies.

Investments and Program Management

Investigating the impact of financial literacy on an individual

Anything finance related, it's my passion. I would love to get more people interested in investing and business development.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis which is a degenerative joint disease causing joints to begin to break down and underlying bones to change. This “wear and tear” most frequently affects hands, hips and knees. This is important because OA pain is considered to be a leading cause of mobility impairment in older adults, with hip and knee OA ranked 11th highest contributors to global disability. Cartilage tissue engineering utilizing polymer scaffolds and hydrogels is an emerging field for treating osteoarthritis. The goal of this project is to address the problem of osteoarthritis and its association with mobility impairment. Through the utilization of polymer scaffolds and hydrogels, this paper creates a hybrid material using PCL scaffolds and GelMa/PEGDA hydrogels that can better withstand physiological and mechanical demands and provide a more controlled environment for drug and nutrient delivery. The scaffolds will provide a three-dimensional structure for tissue growth and the hydrogels will be used to deliver drugs and growth factors. The combination of the two materials can then be utilized to reconstruct healthy, simulated tissue on deficient applicants, reducing the pain and mobility impairment associated with osteoarthritis at a lower cost.

Cell & Tissue Engineering, Cancer (Immuno Oncology), IF Imaging, Digital Pathology, Immunology, Pharmacology, Bioluminescence, Surgical Imaging Technologies, Medical Technologies

Scaffold-Hydrogel Composite for Cartilage Regeneration in Osteoarthritis Applications

Differences between marketing strategies in the US and India. Sources include reports and publications written about apples success in branding and in developing technology. There may be a comparison of Apple vs. Android devices how this competition may influence Apple's marketing strategies. The channels Apple uses in marketing, and strategies within those channels will be compared. 

Preparation for Pre-Med or STEM Undergraduate studies. Entrepreneurship and Business. Scientific Research. Data Science and Analytics.

Comparison of Apples Marketing Strategies in the US vs. India

My project was on the legacy of Alexander the Great. It goes into great detail how the individuals who inspired him help shape a legacy not seen for thousands of years. Another point which I will be going into is in what sectors he influences like trade, art etc. Finally, I will mention some counterclaims for his "legacy".

History, mythology, maritime studies, piracy, music history, aviation history, women's and gender history.

How did Alexander facilitate Cultural Exchange within the Ancient World?

In recent years, end to end steering prediction has grown into a large area of research. The main method of accomplishing end-to-end steering was to use computer vision models on a live feed of video data. In addition, to increase accuracy, many companies added data from a LiDAR and or radar sensor through use of sensor fusion. However, this comes at a large detriment to the financial cost. In this paper, we address this issue by instead adding CAN bus data through the use of sensor fusion to improve the accuracy when compared to a sole computer vision while keeping the cost relatively similar. To collect the data, we drove a car around with a dashboard mounted camera and a computer hooked up to the OBD-II port. We then trained resnet 50 on the video data and CAN bus data and compared this model to one trained without CAN bus data. The metric we choose for measuring success in our experiment is through the Mean Absolute Error (MAE). When we trained the model without CAN bus data we obtained an MAE of x.xx while the model trained with the CAN bus we got an MAE of y.yy. We were able to break which parts of the CAN bus data had the most effect on the accuracy. We did find that the air pressure had an MAE of z.zz which was intriguing since it was very close to zero. As our results are high with the CAN bus data included, it shows that CAN bus data can improve the accuracy while keeping the same financial costs.


vehicle security, vehicle reliability, cybersecurity, applied machine learning, Computer Science, Operating System Security

Problem: how does accuracy of end-to-end steering prediction of autonomous vehicles change when combining image and CAN bus data?

This paper will try to predict emotions in audio data. The best accuracy achieved was 82%.

Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Deep Learning

Emotion Detection in audio data

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) in which several fluid filled sacs (known as cysts) form in the ovaries. The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis is responsible for regulating hormonal activity in the reproductive system. A dysregulation in this axis can lead to an imbalance of hormones which results in PCOS. Hormones known to be involved in the etiology of PCOS include the Luteinising hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating hormone (FSH) , Insulin and Androgen. There are multiple different methods used to diagnose PCOS including blood tests to detect high levels of androgen in the blood and ultrasounds to identify numerous visible follicles in the ovaries. This paper aims to review the hormone mechanisms that result in PCOS and how these abnormalities can be used to create a diagnosis.

Meet Polygence Scholars and explore their projects