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.

Check out some projects

Racial Disparities in Alzheimer's diagnosis.

The fight against Alzheimer's definitely goes beyond looking at cells under the microscope, it begins with early diagnosis! So how do race and ethnicity affect Alzheimer's? In this project, we'll be taking a closer look at the literature to understand how Alzheimer's diagnosis differs across social groups, and what can be done to fix it. This project can take form as a scientific review paper or even an informational video!

Biology, Chemistry

Alla

Write a detailed research proposal for your dream project

The topic could be anything and the proposal will be very impressive when you are applying for jobs or schools in the future. Writing a good research proposal is crucial in academia so it's never too late to start trying. Also, the process will motivate you to become an expert on the topic and help you become a more concise writer. Prerequisite: None.

Chemistry, AI/ML

Jeremy

Concerns about Water Website

As different issues surrounding water arise and approaches to resolve these issues are developed, it’s important to consider the opinions of people in the community. People may have extreme viewpoints on their water resources, and having insight into these viewpoints can greatly benefit researchers. For this project, you would interview community members in an area of interest about their concerns and viewpoints about their water resources, this could be compiled on a website that could be added to over time. If previously conducted interviews are accessible, perhaps also creating a map of different interview opinions would be interesting.

Biology, Engineering, Chemistry

Julia

Increasing the resistant starch content of French Fries using dehydration and retrogradation.

French fries are a high-glycemic food that is ubiquitously available and excessively consumed. This study utilized the processes of dehydration and retrogradation of potatoes before frying to increase the content of resistant starch (RS) in French fries. RS is not digested or absorbed in the upper gastro-intestinal tract and passes to the large intestine where it is fermented into largely beneficial products by the microbiome. An increase in RS potentially translates into a lower-glycemic index and calorific value, thereby mitigating the onset and symptoms of metabolic disease. This project is complete and is published in the Journal of High School Science at https://jhss.scholasticahq.com/article/3703-increasing-the-resistant-starch-content-of-french-fries-using-dehydration-and-retrogradation

Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry

Shireesh

Investigating sleep and disease

Sleep disruption (i.e. not being able to fall asleep, stay asleep, etc.) is common comorbidity in many neurodevelopmental disorders (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Schizophrenia), aging diseases (such as alzheimer's disease), and depression. I am envisioning these types of projects to investigate what the potential role of sleep loss is in one of these diseases or disorders. The project could be in the forum or a blog post or review about this topic. If you are interested, I could see a very interesting survey/ 'study' asking patients with any of these conditions about how they sleep. The main questions for this type of project would be: Is there a connection between chronic sleep disruptions and this disease/disorders? What could be the potential role of sleep loss in one of these diseases/disorders? How does sleep impact development or aging?

Biotech, Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry

Sean

Create a New Biomaterial

Students would learn to find, read, and synthesize new academic research in the biomaterials field. This project would allow students to brainstorm their own cool biomaterial that could be used to heal the human body based on the gaps in current literature. We could then would write a proposal based on this new idea.

Biotech, Biology, Engineering, Chemistry

Paul

Bioluminescence in Medicine

Bioluminescence is being used to monitor brain activity and the progression of cancer cells. Explore the future of bioluminescence imaging in the field of medicine and provide a history of its discovery, as well as its potential. Share your findings in an article, scientific review, or presentation.

Biology, Cancer, Engineering, Chemistry

Cheyenne

Scientific literature review about renewable energy or energy storage

Write a literature review about research on renewable energy technology and corresponding energy storage. You will read scientific publications and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each technology as well as suggest ideas that could help move the industry forward. A similar example is the article I coauthored here https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821686116

Chemistry, AI/ML

Jeremy

Using cBioPortal for multidimensional analysis of cancer genomics and clinical profiles

The cBioPortal is a tool to explore large-scale cancer genomic data sets, providing access to data from cancer cell lines to clinical studies. This tool will allow us to explore genetic alterations across genes and pathways. In this project we will first explore genetic alterations (including genetic mutations), and then formulate a hypothesis regarding the genomic context in cancerous cell lines. The genomic context includes genetic mutation, gene amplification, and changes in protein abundance.

Music, Cancer, Chemistry

Holly

Identifying the best places to land a rover on Mars for a future NASA mission

This project will combine multiple disciplines such as chemistry, geology, topography, and biology. You will study the Mars map in details, understand what type of data Mars rovers collect and why, and what are the biggest Martian questions that need answers! You can write a research paper based on your findings.

Computer Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science

Zhanna

Sustainable chemical production

Most chemicals our world relies on today are produced with petrochemical feedstocks (oil, natural gas). Research and discuss the possibility for replacing the petrochemical feedstock with a renewable one, such as biomass. Which chemicals can (and are already) produced with renewable feedstocks, and which chemicals will be more difficult or require more research to produce sustainably?

Engineering, Chemistry

James

Creating a short film

In this project, you will capture content on the topic of your choice, then use software such as iMovie or other editing platforms, to edit your clips together into a short film. This project gives you an opportunity to explore filmmaking by learning techniques to combine clips and add audio and visual effects.

Biology, Languages, Chemistry, Public Health

Melanie

Investigating the role of Vitamin C and apoptosis in cancer

Data describing the association between Vitamin C and improved cancer patient survival is largely inconsistent. Some investigators show that Vitamin C can promote apoptosis in breast cancer cells and can be used as an anticancer therapy. In this project you write a review on the role of Vitamin C in cancer through the lens of apoptosis. Additionally, you could complete some cell survival and apoptotic assays to assess the role of Vitamin C on breast cancer. Upon completion of this project you could put together a scientific poster, write a review, or a report in the style of a scientific research article.

Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry, Public Health

Grace

Evaluating the risk-to-reward relationship for implementation of Pb-based Perovskite Solar Cells

In recent years, there has been interest in alternative energy sources, as a result of the detrimental impacts that non-renewable energy sources, such as petroleum and coal, have on the environment (i.e. global warming). Photovoltaics has been the leading technology in the drive for sustainable energy sources. It has been predicted that by 2050, wind and solar harvesting technologies will make up close to 50% of the world energy electricity. Solar cells comprising perovskite active layers have been one of the most widely researched photovoltaic technologies in recent years, experiencing the fastest rise in power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of any emerging solar cell technology. Compared to traditional Silicon-based solar cells, perovskite-based solar cells have a smaller materials cost, are able to be processed at ambient temperatures and typically have low, direct and tunable bandgaps. Additionally, while perovskite-based cells have not been able to surpass Silicon-based ones in terms of PCE, tandem solar cells containing both Silicon and perovskite have continued to break records for PCE. The main drawback of perovskite solar cells is that the best forming perovskite chemistries are Lead (Pb)-based. While there are methods available to encapsulate solar cells, commercial implementation of this solar cell technology will come with an inherent risk due to the high toxicity of Pb0. The goal of this project is therefore to evaluate the risk-to-reward relationship for commercial implementation of Pb-based perovskite solar cells. The risk-to-reward relationship may look different for developed countries like the USA versus underdeveloped countries where cheaper solar cell technologies may be more beneficial and desirable.

Physics, Engineering, Chemistry

Yannick

Correlating The Cancer Genome Atlas data with sc-RNAseq data.

There has been an explosion of publicly available data for cancer, including at the single cell resolution. By combining scRNA-seq data with bulk RNA-seq data, a more robust image of tumor purity and the tumor microenvironment can be captured. This has implications for tumorogenesis, disease progression, and therapeutic intervention.

Biology, Physics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Math

Hersh

Climate Change Impact Beyond Humans

How does Climate Change affect wildlife? - How do scientists predict climate change to affect wildlife in the coming years? - How has it already impacted wildlife? - Students can focus on a certain animal population or region. - Potential outcomes include an app (an interactive app for kids to learn more about how climate change has impacted animal populations, maybe with games), essay, or presentation.

Biology, Chemistry, Public Health

Ambika

Build Your Own Website (Self-Host a Web Server)

In this project, you will learn how to create and self-host your own website from scratch. You'll start by designing a website layout using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Next, you'll set up a local server using a platform like Apache or Nginx, configure the necessary server settings, and establish a secure connection using SSL/TLS certificates. You will also learn about domain registration and DNS configuration to connect your website to a custom domain.

Computer Science, Chemistry, AI/ML

Jim

Coral Reef Health

Formulating your own research ideas can seem like a daunting task from afar but is a lot more manageable once you start brainstorming. A project idea we could work on can involve using existing datasets to tackle an ecological question. For example, using a dataset to analyze coral reef health over time and assess impacts (i.e., bleaching events, disturbances, high temperatures, etc.) by doing basic statistical analysis. This project will involve learning to use excel and potentially R to run statistics. But don’t be scared about having to use math if you're interested in marine science. There are many resources that can help explain statistics, or we could look at the social dimensions of reefs, management, and conservation by analyzing environmental policy instead. There’s so many approaches that you can take to focus on your own strengths or what you hope to learn and improve on.

Computer Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science

Shalimar

Clean Water Access in a Changing Climate

Earth is experiencing a climate crisis that is influencing clean water access globally. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, which can lead to excess water or severe droughts. When an extreme event (or a natural disaster) occurs, what are the best ways to provide clean water in a short period of time without relying on plastic water bottles?

Engineering, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Social Science

Julianne

Animals get cancer too

Did you know that many zoo animals can die of cancer? A lot of research is being conducted on which animals are more prone to cancer than others. For example, elephants almost never get cancer because they have an amplified p53 gene that protects them from the disease. I propose a project that does a literature review of all the different zoo animals that may or may not get cancer. Next, propose which animals could be studied as models of cancer resistance and which animals could be models of cancer susceptibility and why.

Biology, Cancer, Chemistry

Sarah