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Browse project ideas by Polygence mentors
Understanding Markets Through Crypto: Research, Risk, and Public Explanation
This project uses cryptocurrency and digital asset markets as a case study for understanding how financial markets function. Students will examine how crypto markets are structured, how prices are formed, and how information, speculation, regulation, and technology influence market behavior. The focus is not on trading or explaining how to get rich, but on analyzing crypto as an economic system shaped by incentives, policy choices, and human behavior. Students will research topics such as market volatility, investor psychology, regulation, and the differences between traditional financial markets and decentralized systems. Alongside research, students will learn how to translate complex economic and technical ideas into clear explanations for a general audience. A key component of the project is communication. Students will develop short podcast episodes or video explainers that break down their research in an accessible, responsible way, learning how to combine evidence, storytelling, and clarity.
Economics
Global Supply Chains, Trade Policy, and the Economics of Technology
This project explores how global supply chains and international trade policies shape access to technology, energy, and essential goods. Students will examine how countries interact through trade agreements, tariffs, and industrial policy, and how these decisions influence innovation, economic growth, and inequality across regions. Using real world examples such as semiconductors, critical minerals, or clean energy technologies, students will analyze how economics, policy, and engineering constraints intersect at a global scale. Students will work with economic data, trade reports, and policy documents to understand concepts such as comparative advantage, supply chain resilience, and market concentration. The project emphasizes analytical thinking and quantitative reasoning, helping students learn how economic models and data are used to inform policy decisions in science and technology driven sectors.
Economics
Improving Drinking Water Quality in Distribution Systems
You'd use computer models of real-world water systems, and analyze what improvements can be made to improve the water quality that is delivered to its residents. You'd use an industry-standard software developed by the EPA to research how the layout of the city could be changed, or the operations of the network could be improved, to better serve the town's residents. It could end in a research paper, or a mock plan to the city council documenting your excellent recommendations!
Engineering
Outcomes of minimally invasive surgery versus open surgery in the pediatric population:
You will be able to learn and apply PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines to perform a scoping review of existing literature of a topic of their choice. This will be a great opportunity to practice the art of writing a literature review or meta-analysis, which is often the basis of many great future research projects.
Creative Writing, Literature, Medicine
Geographic disparities in adult asthma hospitalizations
There are multiple free publicly available databases including the Centers for Disease Control WONDER and NHANES platform as well as the National Institutes of Health SEER Cancer program. You will be able to research the incidence, distribution, and management of a disease of choice using real world data. Understanding the importance of epidemiological research is a critical aspect in the advancement of medicine and scientific research. This is an excellent opportunity to learn basic coding languages to learn simple statistical analysis.
Creative Writing, Literature, Medicine
Do doulas improve the birth experience?
Labor and birth doulas are medical professionals who support the birth experience. Studies show that having a doula can support birth, increase likelihood of skin to skin between child and parent and improve the overall birth experience. An interested student could work on a literature review to summarize the positive impacts that doula have on birth and labor.
Public Health, Environmental Science, Medicine
Survey paper on state-of-the-art integrated circuits
With the rise of AI and necessity for compute power, integrated circuits have become the backbone of data manipulation. To meet strict energy and density demands, circuits have been miniaturized, traditionally following Moore's law but often employing new technology advancements (such as integrated photonics) to make order-of-magnitude improvements in compute power, speed, and/or energy efficiency. This project would survey state-of-the-art chip architectures, comparing and contrasting advantages and disadvantages of certain technologies. From this project, the student would gain an understanding of the silicon technology currently driving the AI revolution and powering the tools and devices we use everyday.
Engineering
Reforming Offenders AND Increasing Public Safety: A Review of the Evidence
Political debates about criminal justice often suggest that policymakers must choose between helping people who have committed crimes and keeping the public safe. In reality, many policies can do both at the same time. This project reviews research on criminal justice policies that help people stop committing crimes and looks at which approaches are most effective at improving public safety while also supporting rehabilitation. It also considers which of these policies might be easier to support politically, helping connect research evidence to real-world policy decisions.
Social Science
Designing a Startup
In this project, a student would identify a real problem they notice in everyday life—at school, at home, or in their community—and explore how it could be turned into a startup idea. The student would research who is affected by the problem, why current solutions fall short, and what a better solution might look like. They would then outline a simple product or service, define who their customer is, and explain how their idea creates value.
Economics, Engineering
Designing a Space Survival System
In this project, a student would explore how humans survive in extreme environments by designing a simple system inspired by space missions. The project could focus on one challenge—such as staying warm, managing limited resources, or supporting the human body—and research how engineers currently solve this problem. The student would then propose their own solution using sketches, basic calculations, or a simple prototype, and explain the tradeoffs in their design. The goal of the project is not to be technically perfect, but to practice breaking down a big problem, asking good questions, and clearly communicating ideas.
Economics, Engineering