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 does death help regeneration?
While many consider regeneration a largely proliferative event, it is often paired with waves of cell death that are vital to the process. Programmed cell death is also an important component of development in many species. However, the role of these controlled death events has not been fully elucidated, and the existing data has not been synthesized to provide a clearer picture. There are lots of unanswered questions that can be potentially explored through detailed literature reviews.
Biotech, Biology
SciArt
A science communication project that combines the arts and science (e.g., of coral reef studies) for a public audience.
Biology, Environmental Science
Writing a literature review on the scientific topic of your choosing
The first step on any research path is finding & 'picking apart' the research that has already exists on that topic. This work will involve writing a scientific review-style paper on a relevant STEM topic of your choosing. The focus of your project should be something you are passionate about, whether that be biology, engineering, chemistry, archaeology, mathematics, etc. Examples of topics include “how do we know that atoms exist if we cannot see them?” and “describe the states of matter; what happens beyond the gaseous state?” Writing is a powerful skill especially in the realm of science! This process of researching, uncovering, and investigating scientific journal articles, as well as differentiating between primary and secondary literature sources is extremely valuable. Let’s explore a topic you are passionate about on in-depth level!
Biotech, Biology, Engineering
Regulation of actin protrusion length
Cells use a variety of building blocks to build structures to help them thrive in their environment. Actin is a cytoskeletal protein that cells use to build protrusions that are used to sense and interact with the world around them. However, the length of these protrusions must be carefully controlled.
Biology, Physics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology of Medicine:
All of biology is based on chemistry, and therefore all human diseases and disorders can be described at a biochemical level. By understanding how the chemistry of a disease works, scientists can design and discover new medicines to treat these diseases, of course with many challenges along the way. Some diseases (such as sickle cell anemia) have relatively simple chemical mechanisms but difficult solutions, whereas others (such as most cancers) have chemically complicated causes and therapies. In this project you will learn about a disease mechanism of your choice at the molecular level, learning genetics, biochemistry, and chemical biology along the way and producing a final proposal aiming to answer an unknown question in the disease of choice or to develop a new therapy for that disease.
Biology, Cancer
Hook, Line and Sinker: Exploring Shakespeare’s Plays
Many of the plots of Shakespeare used for his plays were already well known by audiences. Then what made them (and still makes them) so popular? There are some who find the dimensions of the characters while others feel it’s the language he chooses. Pick a play and let’s explore what you think!
Biology, Neuroscience, History
How do we know what we know?
This project will explore current theories on the nature of knowledge, how people acquire new knowledge, and how these theories impact education. Do teachers view knowledge similarly? Learn how educational researchers use interviews to understand how people think by using those interviews to gather information.
Biology, Psychology, Cognitive
Medical Device Development
I have experience working with engineers and industry and medical professionals in developing effective medical devices that address a clinical need. In this project, you will learn how to navigate the engineering design process from establishing user needs through research and user interviews to creating a minimal viable product through electronic design and prototyping. Together, we will work on personal and technical skills you need to effectively identify and addressing gaps in current medical solutions.
Biology, Physics, Engineering, Math
What's in my water?
Most water contains heavy metal ions such as copper, iron, and zinc. Not all metal ions are bad but at high concentrations they can be unsafe. In this project you could collect water samples within your community and measure the metal ion levels such as ferric and ferrous water. In this project you might learn more analytical chemistry techniques and explore a question relevant to public health. At the end of this project you should be able to put together a written report in the style of a scientific article or a scientific poster.
Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry, Public Health
The relationship between computational and experimental biology
Recent advancements in simulation and A.I programs have made it possible to model complex systems computationally. This has revolutionized how scientists work through projects and search for novel pharmaceutical treatments and therapeutic targets. This project will examine recent advancements in computational biology and how they relate to and support the classic experimental work that is currently being performed.
Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry
Intricacies of the Central Dogma
Our cells are extremely organized and impressively efficient. They make exactly the right amount and type of protein at the right time. This is important for conserving energy and creating quick responses to external stimuli such as healing an injury site or signaling to a neighboring cell. So how do cells maintain this level of organization? Which steps along the protein-making-pathway are being controlled? This project will focus on diving deeper into how cells make proteins, otherwise known as the central dogma. This project can stay broader and look into the main steps of the central dogma, replication, transcription, and translation, or it can become more focused and look into which additional controls can be found at these steps such as post-translational modifications. This would be perfect for a blog idea.
Biology, Neuroscience
Development of new cancer treatment with targeted medicine
Using our understanding of the human body and cellular markers, let's develop a new drug target to treat certain cancers. This project would involve a literature review of the latest research studying specific cellular markers that only cancer cells exhibit and designing a drug to target those markers. The goal of this project would be to publish our findings in a scientific journal and/or poster presentation at a conference.
Biology, Cancer, Social Science, Business
Whose leaf is this anyway?
The leaf surface is a challenging, dynamic environment for microscopic life. Nonetheless, these tiny organisms find a way to colonize and thrive on the leaf. In this project you will isolate leaf microbes by making "leaf prints" like those shown above. In the image above, methanol was provided as food and the influence of lanthanum, a lanthanide metal, was tested for its influence on leaf microbes. For your own isolation, you will choose from a variety of media types, each with a different nutrient composition. Once you have isolated bacterial colonies, you will perform 16s amplicon sequencing to identify your isolate(s). Then, you will use available genome databases to compare your isolates to similar microbes and search for functional genes that likely help your isolate(s) colonize and survive on the plant.
Biology, Chemistry
How do viral infections lead to disease?
Viral infections are often associated with debilitating and deadly diseases (SARS CoV-2 and COVID-19; HIV and AIDS e.g.). How can a virus, which is at best a small clump of protein and nucleic acids, cause these systemic issues in humans?
Biology
Project Management In a Healthcare Setting
Project Management Execution- Would you like to discover how to design an awesome strategy for improving how things work in healthcare? In this project you will learn about quality management and the operational/business side of healthcare. Together we can work on conceptualizing and implementing a set of tools to manage and operate a healthcare project from start to finish. A few examples of project topics in this space include reducing medication errors and programs to combat physician burnout. This includes determining areas for improvement, formulating a hypothesis, collecting data and analyzing systems to see where improvements can be made, drafting an initial proposal to present to management with effective communication methods, and defining metrics that could be used to evaluate the success of your proposal. You will eventually write a final paper detailing the problem you’re trying to solve, potential methods for solving it, and reviewing case studies from existing literature. Skills- Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Basic Tableau
Biology, Public Health
Will cockroaches really outlive us all?
Cockroaches (Blattodea) are known for their resilience. Based on known conservation concerns - climate change, habitat fragmentation, etc. - just how resilient will cockroaches be?
Biology, Environmental Science
Cellular determinants for viral entry
Viruses cannot replicate on their own, they do not have all the machinery that is required to make more of themselves. To replicate, viruses must gain entry into a host cell so that they can use cellular proteins to carry out their life cycle. While all viruses enter cells, they all differ in the way that the gain entry. In this project, we would look at a handful of viruses and examine how each one gains access to the cellular proteins needed for viral replication and compare and contrast their life cycles.
Biology
A look at rare disease inheritance
The goal of this project is to understand the inheritance patterns of rare disease and the molecular mechanisms behind how the genetic changes occur. In this project, you will also become familiar with common genetic terms and expressions. This will involve research about how a rare disease is inherited, the gene/s involved in this disease (genotype), how the symptoms (phenotype) manifests in the patient. Examples are well known diseases like sickle cell anemia and Huntington's disease. You will have the opportunity to research whether there are any known or available treatments or gene therapies available for this rare disease and what some of the challenges are with developing therapies. The expected result of this would be a research paper or presentation.
Biology
Biomedical Therapies for Autism
Beginner Research Paper: This project explores the biomedical interventions used to reduce challenging behavioral symptoms associated with autism by targeting specific physiological functions. We explore interventions such as special diets, probiotics, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
How do neighbors to cancer cells become accomplices in cancer progression?
When we think of our immune system and our microenvironment, we think of cancer cells invading the space (through dissemination). We don't often consider that they recruit other cells to help them continue to grow and divide. How are cancer cells able to influence other cells to be accomplices and disrupt the body's normal regulatory functions? The goal of this project is for students to form hypothesis on ways to target cancer cells by focusing on the environment around them, their neighboring cells, and the proteins that cancer cells may use to continue to grow. Students will conduct guided research of their own and write a report, article, or oral presentation on what we can target to treat certain cancers. By reading academic papers and having discussions, students will learn fundamental principles about cellular biology, molecular signaling, cancer progression, how to design experiments and ask critical questions, and how to creatively apply these hypotheses and experiments into real-world treatment scenarios. The proposed projects will help students feel more confident in their abilities to problem solve at a collegiate level for pre-medical or pre-graduate/laboratory research in the future.
Biology, Cancer
