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
Business and Personal Finance
I would like to explore the relationship personal finance (financial literacy) and a person's desire to work in the business field, whether as an entrepreneur or business related career field. This could be a presentation/lecture on the importance of financial literacy or could be written as an essay.
Biology, Psychology, Healthcare, Business
The impact of social determinants of health during the postpartum period
This project assesses how social determinants of health (ie. food insecurity, housing insecurity, transportation, language barriers) impact the postpartum or post-delivery period. Students can screen women who have recently given birth for social determinants of health and interview them on how their various social needs have influenced their postpartum care and experiences.
Biology, Healthcare
Racial Disparities and Preferences in Breast Reconstruction
This project reviews differences and disparities in access to care, type of breast reconstruction, and health outcomes among women who have survived breast cancer. Comparisons will be made based on the patients' racial and ethnic identities. This project offers an excellent opportunity to contribute to a growing body of knowledge on health disparities in order to address an important public health question.
Biology, Neuroscience, Surgery, Healthcare, Public Health
Beginner Level: Review on effects of radiation from medical imaging.
In this project, you will write a scientific review-style paper on the effects of radiation from medical imaging. Whenever we take a picture of the body using x-rays, those x-rays give off radiation to the body. While a little bit from a single x-ray is probably not harmful, a lot of radiation can cause harm, including a higher risk of cancer later in life. This process will teach you how to find, access, and critically analyze existing scientific literature and how to assemble primary literature into a scientific review. You will gain skills in writing and editing, as well as an in-depth knowledge on ultrasound.
Healthcare, Medicine
Call to action - Improving access to Interpreters in the Surgery Department
Is there something in our society you feel needs to be improved, or something you can do better? This is how a lot of research ideas are born. Some of my family members do not speak English and as a medical student I noticed that they were not getting great medical care. This is how I started my quality improvement project on improving access to Interpreter Services in the surgery department. Based on your research interest, we can tackle a project together to work towards a creative final product, like a blog post, infographic, creative writing essay, or even an interpretive dance. Based on your research interests, you can build skills like data collection with surveys or interviews, reading the literature on the topic, etc. We'll work together to find a creative way to present and show off your work!
Neuroscience, Surgery, Healthcare
Community Focused Health Analysis
Population data on disease within a particular geographic region is critical to both clinicians and health systems. It helps inform strategic decisions on how to tailor services to particular patient population. This project would describe and analyze rates of disease incidence within a specific community of interest and provide ideas for targeted solutions.
Biology, Arts, Healthcare, Business
Open Questions about the New Drug Ozempic
Drugs like Ozempic are great examples of how basic science research can impact patient care! This drug, used to treat diabetes and obesity, has quickly become widely poplar among patients and news outlets alike. However, there is still a lot we don't know about precisely how Ozempic is working and what the long-term outcomes of chronic use might be. Imagine you're a doctor with a patient who has questions about the drug. How would you go about gathering information to answer their question? We can use this project as a chance to explore what it might be like to delve into recent research, summarize published outcomes, and list open questions. Together, we would explore how to best search for relevant articles (using resources like PubMed and UpToDate), how to digest both medical and basic research papers, and how to write a scientific report detailing your findings. By honing these skills to answer the above research question (or another one you find interesting!) you'll get exposure to what many doctors and scientists do every day as they work to understand new developments in the field.
Healthcare
Availability of Mental Health Services Over time in the U.S.
Use publicly available datasets (for instance, the National Mental Health Services Survey) to analyze the availability of mental health services in a U.S. state over time. Plot the type of service offered and analyze the demographics of people served. How does availability of services for children compare to adults and older adults? What proportion of facilities accept Medicaid/Medicare/public funds (making services accessible to low income populations)?
Cognitive, Healthcare, Public Health
Understanding how people's upbringing affects their diet and risk for obesity
This project aims to understand how people were raised could affect their diet and therefore their risk for obesity. It aims to interview people to understand how they believe the way they were raised influence what they eat and impact their health.
Healthcare, Public Health
Investigating the Impact of Exercise on Mental Health in Teenagers
This research project focuses on exploring the relationship between physical activity and mental well-being in teenagers. The objective is to understand how regular exercise influences mental health parameters such as stress levels, mood, and overall emotional well-being in adolescents. By conducting this study, the student aims to contribute valuable insights to the fields of both exercise science and mental health.
Healthcare
Exercise and Happiness
We could explore the relationship between people who meet the AHA (American Heart Association) exercise recommendation's and their overall happiness vs. those who are more sedentary. This could be written as a research paper or be a presentation.
Biology, Psychology, Healthcare, Business
Advanced-Level: Writing a review on the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in pediatric imaging
In this project, you will write a scientific review-style paper on the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound for diagnosing disease in children. The use of contrast in ultrasound is relatively new and innovative, and is gaining use rapidly. The main benefit is that ultrasound does not use radiation and is very safe in children. This process will teach you how to find, access, and critically analyze existing scientific literature and how to assemble primary literature into a scientific review. You will gain skills in writing and editing, as well as an in-depth knowledge on ultrasound.
Healthcare, Medicine
How has Modern U.S. Religion Evolved?
Understanding recent trends in U.S. religion is critical to providing culturally-tailored services in both healthcare and other nonprofit fields. This project will analyze both publicly available data and key texts to describe recent trends in religious affiliation and identity.
Biology, Arts, Healthcare, Business
Can You Grow a Human Heart?
Regenerative medicine is an exciting field of research, especially with emerging stem cell therapies. You could do an in-depth literature review on emerging stem cell trials and present your findings in a podcast format, research paper, or video.
Cancer, Healthcare
How Does Aristotle Inform Decision-Making at the End of Life in the U.S. Healthcare System?
All medical decisions are grounded in moral values, and clinicians ought to have an ethical framework to guide their decision-making process. This project will apply principles of Aristotle's seminal work, Nicomachean Ethics, to topics of end-of-life decision-making such as artificial nutrition, code status changes, and brain death.
Biology, Arts, Healthcare, Business
Healthy Living Workshop for Teens
Create and conduct a workshop or seminar aimed at educating fellow high school students about the principles of lifestyle medicine and how small changes in daily habits can significantly impact overall health and well-being. The project can be broken down into several components: Research Phase: Study the principles of lifestyle medicine, focusing on topics like nutrition, exercise, stress management, sleep, and social connections. Research scientific studies and articles supporting the positive impact of lifestyle choices on health outcomes. Workshop Development: Develop engaging presentations, interactive activities, and informative handouts tailored to the interests and concerns of teenagers. Incorporate real-life examples, success stories, and practical tips to make the information relatable and actionable. Consider incorporating guest speakers, such as local nutritionists, fitness trainers, or mental health professionals, to enhance the workshop content. Workshop Delivery: Organize the workshop in collaboration with school clubs, health classes, or after-school programs. Conduct interactive sessions where participants can actively participate, ask questions, and share their experiences. Provide resources and references for further reading and exploration.
Healthcare
Tackling Social Determinants of Health in Your Community
Investigate social determinants of health in your community, city, state, or nation and tackle them through policy change or strategic partnerships. In projects such as these, you are proposing evidence-based solutions to tackle the most pressing health challenges that are impacting your community. Through a case studies approach, you will follow a traditional consulting engagement/ research framework including conducting literature reviews, competitor analysis, feasibility studies, stakeholder interviews, survey development/distribution, etc..
Healthcare, Public Health, Business
COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Child Food Insecurity
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools transitioned to virtual learning, limiting students' access to free and reduced price meal programs. Students would investigate how this additional barrier impacted students' food security status and associated health outcomes including BMI and mental health. They could investigate one particular region, or compare discrepancies between states or districts. Students would write up a paper outlining what they learned and recommendations.
Healthcare, Public Health
Synergistic Pain Management for Postoperative Pain
This project will include a brief overview of current postoperative pain management guidelines, the neurobiology of opioid pain relief, and the burden of opioid addiction faced by patients undergoing surgery. The bulk of the project consists of a thorough literature review of pain relief pathways in the brain and research exploring synergistic ways of relieving postoperative pain via neurobiology (such as complimentary receptor stimulation) that may decrease the narcotic requirement for adequate pain relief of postsurgical patients in the future. The literature review will then conclude in information synthesis and a scientific manuscript summarizing the current state of research on pain pathways. The findings are relevant to important topics in addressing the opioid epidemic.
Biology, Neuroscience, Surgery, Healthcare, Public Health
How will personalized medicine affect the costs of medical care?
Medical care is very expensive at its current state. The outlook in personalized medicine may seem promising, however our current healthcare model may not be able to accommodate such increased expense for lower-income patients. The student may compile the various modes of personalized medicine and engineer strategies on how to implement them in our current healthcare system.
Healthcare, Medicine
