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 is human behavior shaped by societal factors?
How do societal factors - from culture and class, to economic inequality and political polarization - shape human behavior? In this project, you will pick one societal factor you are interested in and do a "deep dive" into how it shapes psychological processing and how people interact with one another. Together, we can explore a range of questions that most interest you, from how do romantic relationships differ across culture or class, to how does economic inequality influence perceptions of trust and competition? This project can either be a scientific review paper or the product of a secondary analysis of data from publicly available sources.
Social, Psychology, Statistics
The Proposal
Do you have a vague research idea but have no clue where to start? Then this is the project for you! By working on a research proposal, you'll learn how to define your research questions, pick the best research methodology, and learn some cool stats to answer those questions. Together, we'll discuss the challenges your research project may face, pros/cons of your methods, and the potential significance of your findings. At the end of this project, you'll have a "research proposal" that should convince any reader of the importance of your project (and hope that they'll agree to fund your research)!
Social, Psychology, Social Science, Statistics
Psychiatric Applications of Neuromodulatory Interventions
In this project, you will learn the mechanism of action for a specific neuromodulatory intervention (e.g., electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, etc). You will then review the current literature regarding the application of the intervention and discuss potential future directions. The project will culminate in writing a scientific review paper on your chosen neuromodulatory intervention. Prerequisites - Basic understanding of biology - Strong interest in the topic - A few hours of work outside of each session Additional Information You will need access to scientific journal databases, which can often be accessed through your local library.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive, Statistics
Thinking about minds
When we look out at the world, we can immediately tell which kinds of things have "minds" and which ones don't. (We'd be shocked if the garbage can started moving itself across the floor.) What's more, we have beliefs about what kinds of minds others have --- e.g., toddlers can have desires but can't think rationally; bugs seem to feel less pain than dogs and cats. These are incredible inferences to make: Humans are the only creatures on earth that are capable of thinking this way. In this project, we'll start off by reading and discussing papers about how people make these kinds of judgments, and we'll work towards developing a project. We could even run a study together and analyze the data! I'm open to whatever your interests might be --- we can do some research, or we can do something totally new.
Philosophy, Psychology, AI/ML, Cognitive
Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Predictive Testing Perspectives
Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is a genetic condition caused by common variants in the SERPINA1 gene. Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency can cause liver and lung disease, but there are targeted treatments available once people are symptomatic. Many people are identified after a family member is diagnosed, but this is also included on direct to consumer genetic testing. People who have been identified with alpha-1 antitrypsin depending by genetic testing without clinical symptoms will be interviewed to discover their perspective of their diagnostic process, feelings about treatment options, and interaction with the healthcare system. This project would require an IRB review, which can extend the project timeline by 1-3 months.
Ethics, Psychology, Public Health
Mental Health in the Media
Young people often gain information about mental health and mental health care from the media, particularly social media. There is a need to explore 1) the evidence base behind current mental health content on social media and 2) to create more evidence-based mental health content. I have experience with exploratory research on the type of content that is posted and the accuracy of this content on TikTok (e.g., https://tmb.apaopen.org/pub/ww4d98wp/release/2?readingCollection=c17ec235). I would be excited to support a prospective student in using research to examine the accuracy of mental health social media content and/or to create their own evidence-based content.
Psychology
The Psychological Effects of Opioid Use
Through this project, a student can research the psychological effects of opioid use through major psychology and medical journals. The student will write a research paper that could potentially be published.
Psychiatry, Social, Psychology, Philanthropy, Business, Organizational Leadership
Correlates of Toxicity in Video Games: Are Avatars a Solution?
Toxicity in online gaming is a serious problem, causing significant detriments to well-being, especially for female players. This research will build on Dr. Ratan's research on this topic (see his Op-Ed in Wired here: https://www.wired.com/story/toxicity-in-gaming-is-dangerous-heres-how-to-stand-up-to-it/) to examine whether avatar customization orientations might help address this issue. You will conduct a survey to examine how often people are exposed to toxicity depending on the types of online games they play. You will test hypotheses that toxicity exposure is correlated with measures of well-being, loneliness, and depression. You will also compare these correlations by gender, race, age, and other demographics. Finally, you will identify whether certain approaches to avatar customization that people report (e.g., choosing to represent themselves more or less idealistically) are related to more or less harmful effects of toxicity exposure.
Social, Psychology, Social Science
The Effect of Perceived Stress on Music Preferences and Listening Habits
Through furthering our understanding of the role that our emotional state plays in music genre preferences and music listening habits, we can develop interventions to leverage music to improve mood and work performance. Specifically, understanding the role of stress in music genre preferences and music listening habits could be leveraged in interventions to reduce stress and improve performance at work or school. The student will put together a brief (<5 minute) single-session anonymous web-based survey to be distributed to their peers. We will ask at least 20 participants to complete the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983), report how many hours a day they spend listening to music, and what music genres (e.g., Pop music, Hip hop music, Jazz, Rock) they listen to most frequently. All study procedures will be approved by the IRB. We will analyze the data using Excel or R statistics (depending on student preference). The student will develop a paper suitable for journal publication or a research symposium presentation to disseminate their findings. Through this project, students interested in psychology and music therapy will learn about survey design, measurement, IRB approval, statistics, and dissemination of research as they would in a college-level research methods class.
Social, Psychology
Review of Psychology & Physical Health Outcomes
As a health psychology graduate student, I am trained to understand how psychosocial factors (e.g., happiness, anger, loneliness, socioeconomic status) impact individuals' physical health. For students with similar interests, we can write a systematic review paper focused on a psychosocial factor of interest and the body systems through which it affects physical health. Through this project, students will become familiar with using Google Scholar for literature searches, learn how to assess the quality of academic sources (e.g., using metrics such as journal quality, citations, recency, and research methods), and learn how to summarize the literature in an academic review paper. These skills can benefit students as they begin taking upper-division college courses and those who go on to participate in research labs where assisting graduate students or professors with literature search and writing is required. The final project will be a review paper that could be submitted as a journal article.
Social, Psychology
Robotics and Society
The student will investigate a topic in robotics such as home-care robotics. Research on the current obstacle and investigate/design solutions for it. Open to more discussion with the student and based on their interest with the topic.
Psychology, Languages, Social Science
Foundations of Structural MRI Physics
In this project, you will learn about the physics of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). You will explore the physics of the MRI machine and how those signals interact with the body to produce a structural MRI. You may choose to focus on anatomical images or diffusion-weighted images, or you may explore both topics. You will then produce an a scientific review paper or infographic depicting the process, depending on your preference. Prerequisites Basic understanding of physics and biology.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive, Statistics
Climate change data analytics
Leverage international survey data from 140 countries to understand what factors predict people's concern for climate change. Involving heavy data analytics / modeling, this project can help us understand what factors are predictive of someone being concerned about the environment.
Psychology, Social Science, Business
Sleep improvements in a new model of Alzheimer's disease
My research is focused on targeting the endocannabinoid system to improve sleep phenotypes in a model of AD. I have created a new genetically altered mouse that we hope will show improved sleep phenotypes. We use a sleep system in our lab to measure sleep and this data is available for analysis. After I have monitored sleep in these animals we will work together to analyze the sleep data and generate sleep traces, total hourly sleep amounts and assess quality of sleep in these new mice. This experiment will introduce you to data analysis, making figures and presenting data. You will also gain insights into sleep behavior in mice.
Neuroscience, Psychology
What happens in the brain when you meditate?
Meditation is an ancient practice that has now shown efficacy in treating various mental ailments and promoting general well-being. How does meditation alter the brain to achieve these goals? In this project we can explore how meditation affects
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Arts, Languages
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
Height and genetics: Nature or Nurture
How much do your genes determine your height? How much do nutrition and environmental factors play a role? What gene variants are implicated in height differences and what is the role of epigenetics? We will access and analyze an open dataset on twins to estimate the correlation between monozygotic twins (who have the exact same DNA) and height. You will learn to use R to open a dataset, analyze data with statistical methods such the student’s t-test, and display your data as graphs and charts. Finally, you will learn how to make a research presentation on height and genetics, describe the research methods, and present the data in a compelling and thorough way.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Medicine
Creating a stress intervention for high school students during exam season
With this example, the student could design an intervention to attempt to reduce stress that high school students face during exam seasons. They could begin by conducting surveys on some of the causes of stress in high school students and use existing literature and relate interventions to design their own, specifically tailored to a given situation (e.g. stress during SAT prep). This intervention could be through an app, school sponsored events, etc. This would allow the student to gain implementation and dissemination skills, along with the skills necessary to design a study.
Social, Psychology, Cognitive
Learning (and coping) strategies in this fast-paced and eventful era
When more than half of our global population was confined to bedrooms and to learn and to work, when online courses and meetings became the norm, when our average human attention span is rapidly shrinking while everything else is booming and luring, how do we keep our focus and keep important information from fading? In this project, you will: - gain comprehensive understanding of attention, memory and learning processes - get to know useful tools and methods (such as mindfulness) in boosting attention, memory and general life satisfaction - Evaluate the validity and reliability of certain intervention-based studies that trying to promote/demote certain practices - conduct interviews and/or questionnaires on one or several of the tools and methods we have discussed
Psychology, Linguistics, Cognitive
Parent Evaluation of the UCLA TIES Infant Mental Health (IMH) program.
Develop an online parent survey as well as conduct qualitative interviews with referred foster/adoptive parents. The objective would be to obtain input from foster and adoptive parents participating in IMH to analyze the effectiveness of this program, perceptions of relationships with TIES, and if perceptions of relationships differed between families and UCLA TIES clinicians. The survey should include demographic and family history data that can be used to identify children that have been placed in care with higher risk factors (e.g., prior abusive history, number of placements, age of placement) who are statistically likely to experience emotional, social, and academic dysregulation in life. This evacuation is intended to be used to improve the quality of services received by adoptive/foster parents so that children placed in resource care are wholly supported.
Psychiatry, Music, Neuroscience, Social, Psychology, Social Science, Nutrition, Cognitive, Public Health, Organizational Leadership
