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
Production of Novel Bioadhesives for Tissue Engineering and Therapeutic Applications
Designing new bioadhesives that can be used clinically to eliminate the need to suturing and invasive surgical procedures. This is beneficial because it greatly decreases the risk of nosocomial infections and the other risks involved with invasive procedures. Some complications with this technology is the ability to use hydrogels inside the body directly on tissue surfaces. A potential project idea is figuring out how to make the bioadhesives more compatible for diverse environments.
Physics, Math
Designing and completing a research project given the resources available to you
Have you ever wanted to be a real-life scientist and complete projects such as my research illustrated above? Don't be discouraged by limited resources! I can work with you to facilitate the use of your community or secondary school laboratories, computer labs and libraries, or those of a nearby (or not so nearby) university or company. In this project, you will design a research project that can be completed at, gather data, and present that data as either a scientific poster or talk. You will learn about the scientific process, how to construct appropriate figures for your data, and how to communicate your results in a formal presentation, such as my research featured above!
Physics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Math
The Life and Death of the Special Attack
One common trend among light novels is the use of special attacks, as the main character progresses older techniques fall out of favor, especially in longer titles with hundreds of chapters. A simple project would be to process a light novel and count the frequency of a special attack. Then we can answer some simple questions: -What is their most-used attack? -What is the longest span of chapters a given technique is used for? -Do technique names become more extravagant as the story progresses? -Do any of the above change between different authors (or maybe the same author but different titles)?
Computer Science, Quantitative, Math
Design and Code an Arduino Robot for Autonomous Navigation
In this mentorship project, I will guide you as you explore Arduino, an open-source microcontroller platform, and embark on designing, building, and coding your own robot for autonomous navigation. Throughout the project, I will provide you with valuable resources and tools to help you learn about Arduino and how it can be used for robotics projects. You will have the opportunity to brainstorm and create the physical structure of your robot, taking into consideration factors such as size, weight, and mobility. Together, we will explore various sensors that can be integrated into your robot to enable it to perceive its surroundings effectively. I will assist you in accessing resources and learning materials to understand how to code your robot using Arduino's user-friendly programming language and development environment. You will gain knowledge in programming behaviors like obstacle detection, avoidance strategies, and path planning algorithms. As your mentor, I will provide guidance and support throughout the project, helping you troubleshoot any challenges you encounter.
Engineering, Math, Statistics
Machine Learning Project
We can choose a publicly available dataset and use machine learning algorithms to better analyze and make predictions on the data; regression models, neural networks, random forest, etc. This dataset can be from science, stock, or if the student has a particular area of interest, then we can choose a dataset that the student is interested in.
Physics, Chemistry, Math
From iPhone to IMAX -- A review of contemporary cameras and their limits
Apple ad campaigns proudly show off pictures "Shot on iPhone" in subway stations throughout the world, and directors are quick to comment on the amount of technological progress that has occurred since their own childhoods by claiming we all had movie cameras in our pockets nowadays. Yet, major movies are exclusively shot on incredibly expensive equipment and one of the first things any creator will do when trying to build their business is to invest in a fancy camera. Why is that? What limits the image quality of smartphone cameras, and what exactly is won by moving to more expensive ones? In this project, the student will have to engage in extensive "reading" covering an eclectic mix of sources including textbooks, patents, manuals, YouTube videos, Wikipedia articles and research papers to understand both the basic physics of optical imaging and the design of modern-day cameras in order to answer these questions. The ultimate deliverable for this project could take many different forms, including a literature review, an oral presentation, or an explanatory YouTube video showcasing footage shot with different cameras while explaining the underlying science.
Physics, Sports Analytics, Math
Economics
How are different economic variables related? Do business cycles affect all states/counties the same? How do policy-makers affect the economy? Projects here are intended to help you learn about the economy either through a literature review or independent data collection and analysis.
Economics, Quantitative, Math, Business
Finding Value in MLB Free Agency
Every offseason there are hundreds of professional baseball players who become free agents and can be signed by any team. This project involves determining which players might be a good "value" by deciding which statistics are most important to helping a team win relative to how players are generally paid. After deciding which stats are the most important, a ranked list of "value" can be produced based on expected salaries.
Sports Analytics, Economics, Math, Statistics
The effects of noise in measurements
This project will deal with a very real variable in experimental sciences, noise. How does adding noise effect the results we get, and how can we develop algorithms to reduce the amount of noise in a system. First there is reducing the amount of noise measured, then there is post signal processing. Both of these methods needs to be used in tandem to tackle the problem of noisy, stochastic systems.
Physics, Engineering, Math, AI/ML
Introduction to Spiking Neural Networks
Find a paper that trains a spiking neural network. Use any provided code to implement it yourself. Look at the discussion section of the paper to see if there are any easy future directions to take and take a stab at expanding the work in that sense. Finally, compare this network to biological neurons. How are these spiking models different from real neurons? *Picture grabbed from this paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.11146
Neuroscience, Psychology, Physics, Computer Science, Math
Investigating Dark Energy and the Early universe
Why is the universe expanding? This project would focus on understanding our current evidence for the expanding universe. An interesting calculation would be showing how we can get the age of the universe from telescope observations! Research would include learning about the hubble tension (why does the expansion of the universe seem different depending on how we measure it) which is one of the biggest points of contention in the field of cosmology today. This project could be running an early universe simulation and/or a literature review.
Physics, Computer Science, Math
Space Debris Problem
Have you ever wondered what happens to the remains of a rocket that goes into space? Or a satellite that is no longer in use? They remain in space as floating junk forming a layer around Earth. They even have a name, Spcae Debris. In this project, we will investigate the problem of space debris and its impact on spacecraft and satellite operations. Develop a project to analyze and classify the orbits of known debris objects using publicly available data from organizations like NASA. We will identify regions of space that need more attention and look at possible ways of reduce and eliminate space debris. We will learn to write computer programs that will help us visualize the debris floating in space.
Physics, Engineering, Math, Creative Writing
Brewing perfect espresso using machine learning tools
Brewing great espresso is not an easy task. Multiple components are involved from Physics of fluids to Kitchen Science that one experiences every day. In this project, we aim to tackle the problem of brewing the perfect espresso with a more holistic approach. In particular, we will develop machine learning models on the brewing data with features varying from coffee weight to extracted volume. A significant part of the part will involve some fun experiments in which students can explore the parameter space in her kitchen. This is a beginner-level project.
Physics, Math, AI/ML
Community Communication: The Association between Substance Use and Depression
This project would include examining the literature on how substance use and depression are related within a certain population. Once the articles are collected, we would review what the literature states and create a dissemination. The dissemination would be something that can be easily communicated to the greater community such as a website, graphic, or poster.
Psychology, Math, Statistics
Electric Propulsion vs Chemical Propulsion
Rockets are mainly made out of fuel. When the fuel burns it gets heated and expelled out, producing thrust. Fuel is heavy, and for long-range space missions, we need to carry around the fuel for the rest of the mission the whole way. It is important, then, that the fuel gives us the most bang for our buck (i.e. most acceleration per unit fuel). One project could be comparing the amount of fuel (weight) required to get to various celestial objects and back using current electric and chemical propulsion technologies. Then, also a cost analysis and comparing how long it would take.
Physics, Math
Replacing rare-earth elements in clean energy technologies
Achieving global climate goals requires rapid and widespread implementation of clean energy technologies. Yet, use of rare-earth elements in these technologies (e.g. cobalt in batteries, platinum in fuel cells, indium in solar panels etc.) make them cost-prohibitive and limit the possibility of extensive world-wide adoption of these clean energy alternatives. Potential project ideas include reviewing the fundamental functions of these rare-earth elements in energy technologies and investigating alternative, earth-abundant materials which may serve similar functions.
Physics, Chemistry, Math
Why do neurons die?
The death of neurons causes a huge array of terrible diseases including Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and is a primary pathology in stroke and traumatic brain injury. So why are neurons so susceptible to dying? And why is the nervous system so hard to fix after injury? In this project, you will explore the literature to better understand what makes neurons so fragile and what we can do about it!
Math
Computer vision in autonomous drones
We will use OpenCV as a computer vision tool to aid in developing an autonomous drone. One of the biggest problems in developing autonomous drones is localization. The drone needs to know where it is relative to everything else. OpenCV is used in localization to identify nearby landmarks in order to accurately predict where it is currently located. This project will use computer vision to identify landmarks, and use this data to predict where the drone is located.
Physics, Engineering, Math, AI/ML
Gene regulatory networks, adaptation, and dynamics
A number of gene regulatory networks, or GRNs, have been found in biology that are capable of exhibiting complex signal processing properties. We will investigate the ability of different GRNs to process complex signaling behaviors, and assess their ability to optimize their accuracy and energy usage.
Math
Compost Design
Research the different methods in composting food waste and create the fasted and easiest method that is appealing to homeowners and schools. Build a compost bin in a 3D modelling platform, then in your home/school, and finally test your ideas.
Physics, Engineering, Chemistry, Math, Organizational Leadership
