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
Introduction to Deep Learning and Computer Vision
Have you ever wondered how a self-driving car can identify and respond to different objects in real-time? Or how social media sites can automatically detect and differentiate between faces in photos? This project aims to give you a basic understanding of how computer vision systems work, and will culminate in you creating and training your very own neural network for object detection and classification. Prerequisites: Enthusiasm and desire to learn! Prior programming experience, especially in MATLAB, is helpful; however, it is not necessary, and you will be taught everything you need, customized to your individual level.
Neuroscience, AI/ML, Cognitive
Class Presentation - Kids Online
A lot is known about how social media use and the stress of our online culture influences adolescents, but a lot less is known about how screen time influences younger children. In this project, you will spend time learning about how screen time impacts childhood development. Results could be presented to classmates.
Neuroscience, Psychology
Program a photo/filter editing application to make your Instagram and home photos stand out
This project involves applying filters to photos and tweaking the properties of an image. You will become an expert in image manipulation in Python. You will discover how images are encoded and how to manipulate pixels. Plus, editing photos and creating filters lets you work on dynamic user interaction since you will be handling user mouse clicks and keyboard input. By the end of the program, you can export your manipulated images and create a fantastic collection.
Biology, Neuroscience, AI/ML
One Brain, Many Minds: The Split-Brain Phenomenon and its Implications for Consciousness
It's easy to take for granted that within each of our brains lies the machinery to power precisely one unified mind, but the behavior of split-brain patients strongly calls this assumption into question. While these patients would seem unremarkable in a crowd, specialized tasks can elicit responses from one cerebral hemisphere that outright contradict the responses of the other, causing patients to behave as if they are simultaneously controlled by two (or more?) distinct minds. In this project, students will explore the split-brain phenomenon in addition to related neurological conditions like blindsight and hemispheric neglect, coming to their own conclusions about the unity of consciousness in health and disease.
Neuroscience
Podcast Series: Racism in Medicine
The medical field is not immune from racism. From deliberate experimentation on enslaved peoples to withholding proper treatment to Black Men in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, racism has been present since the start of the medical profession in the United States. In this project, a student will research and interview professionals on different examples of racism in medicine. Each podcast episode will revolve around a specific example - with background information given by the student and a featured interview with a professional.
Biology, Neuroscience, Public Health
Memory Game
How does memory work? How far can we push the limits of human memory? In this project you can learn more about how memory works and use this knowledge to develop a memory game that tests the limits of human memory. From here you could collect data from your friends or family and learn how to use python to make plots of your findings.
Neuroscience, Public Health
Animal Models of Stress In Neuroscience
Stressed induced an animal models can give insight to poor mental health and psychiatric disorders in humans. Stress can induce changes in the neurons and cells in the brain. It can change the behaviors of the animals as well as their neuronal oscillations (firing). There are many models to induce stress like taking away a mouse's mother early, putting an aggressive, larger mouse with a smaller control mouse, etc. Investigating how animals brain's are altered after stress can be important to understand how a human brain is affected by stress.
Neuroscience
Exploring the Axon Initial Segment in Brain Disorders
Neurons are brain cells that have three main parts, the somatodendritic compartment, the axon initial segment, and the axon-axon terminal. The axon initial segment is instrumental for the neuronal function. However recent evidence suggests that the axon initial segment is disrupted in brain disorders like epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar, Autism spectrum disorders, multiple sclerosis, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Biology, Neuroscience
Literature Review on Advancements in Diabetes Management
The field of diabetes is rapidly changing; with new technology emerging every year, we are closer to a cure than ever before. Students will dive into scientific literature to understand what challenges face researchers in their attempts to find a cure and how diabetes management solutions have evolved over the last 25 years.
Biotech, Neuroscience
Lost in translation: research models of the future
The scientific field has faced many challenges over the years to find models (such as monkeys, mice, worms, or computers) for different diseases and research questions about human health. Some questions can be answered with models that don't even require a living organism, while others need live human or non-human primate participation in order to translate findings into medical treatments. This project would explore the pros and cons of different models, as well as an outlook for what the future of scientific research will look like.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
Depression or Dementia?
Most patients with dementia develop neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, apathy, and agitation. Additionally, when someone develops neuropsychiatric symptoms as an older adult, it could be an indication that they may develop dementia. Interesting topics to explore may include the different neuropsychiatric symptoms and psychiatric disorders associated with different dementias, how to treat neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with dementia, and the different brain regions involved.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive
How to design a neuroscience research study: a thought experiment?
Learn how to design a neuroscience research study, you will define a 'specific aim' of research. Explore which experimental techniques would allow you to get at that aim. Define the parameters, study population, and paradigm. The goal of this thought experiment is to explore the basics of designing a research experiment but more importantly provide training in how to think as a researcher, how do we ask our questions and how do we go about answering them? The ultimate end product would be writing a research strategy or protocol.
Neuroscience
How to Best Create Content for Young People?
A tip sheet for content-creators on how to create content for children or adolescents.
Neuroscience, Social
Solving Medical Problems
Let's identify a problem in patient care and develop a device design or other solution to help address it. We will learn the basics of the design process including needs assessment, research, prototyping, and testing. Students can learn to use any tools they need, including but not limited to CAD, 3D printing, physical manufacturing methods, and Matlab. If you can dream it you can make it!
Cancer, Neuroscience, Engineering, Photography, Chemistry
Investigating the Relationship between Air Pollution and Health Outcomes in Rural and Metropolitan Areas
This project would involve obtaining publicly available data on air pollution levels and health outcomes (ie hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses, mortality rates, lung cancer prevelance/incidence, etc). The student could then analyze the data to determine if there is a correlation between air pollution levels and negative health outcomes. The student could also explore the potential impact of factors such as socioeconomic status, age, or sex/gender on the relationship between air pollution and health outcomes. The student could then summarize this on a poster, write up the results, and present their findings at a conference or virtually.
Biology, Cancer, Neuroscience, Computer Science, AI/ML
The Cognitive effects of Bilingualism
Bilingualism has been rising around the world. You may wonder if bilingualism produces more cognitive advantages. There are many studies that have shown that there is cognitive skill difference between monolinguals and bilinguals. In this project, we can compare vocabulary size difference between monolinguals and bilinguals who have acquired their second language at different time points. We will design a method to test the vocabulary size difference between the three groups, and write a research proposal paper.
Neuroscience, Social
Are glia involved in opioid addiction?
Opioid addiction is currently at epidemic levels in the US, but we still don't fully understand how opioid addiction works. A lot of work has been done on addiction in neurons, but what role may glia, the caretaker cells of neurons, play in opioid addiction? In this project you will do research on what proteins have been identified to be involved in addiction in neurons and then use RNA and protein data libraries, such as the Ben Barres lab Brain RNA-Seq library, to see if glia could also play a role. (Image by Javier Maria Trigo from The Pharmaceutical Journal)
Biology, Neuroscience, Cognitive
8 legs are better than 2!
The octopus is one of my favorite animals- not just because they're crazy smart but because they're amazing movers! 70% of neurons in the octopus are located in their arms, which control their movement, the texture of their skin, the color of their camouflage, and each individual sucker. On top of that, they can detect color and taste through their skin! In this project, you'll learn about the motor and chromatophore systems of these amazing creatures along with their unique behaviors for camouflage. Along the way, you'll learn the core principles of how neurons communicate and produce behavior.
Neuroscience, Psychology, AI/ML
How do psychedelics affect brain oscillations?
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is gaining a lot of popularity recently. Based on the existing electrophysiology literature, are there any common features between the states induced by different psychedelic compounds? What are medicinal uses for them potentially? This project could be an op-ed piece, a literature review paper, or blog post.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Arts, Languages
Conference Poster
Develop a research question that interests you and propose a way to test that question. Dive into the literature to situation your question in the field and identify the gap your study could fill. Practice presenting your proposal or completed project as an academic poster, which is a common format for conference presentations.
Neuroscience, Social, Cognitive
