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Browse project ideas by Polygence mentors
Measuring lunar craters to estimate impact energy
You will use NASA's QuickMap tool to measure the size of lunar craters on the highlands and mare regions of the Moon. You will learn about crater-size scaling laws and apply them to estimate impact energies of these craters. You will analyze the results to determine if there is a difference between highlands and mare craters. You will write up the project as a research paper, learning about how craters form, the physics behind the process and the geology of the Moon.
Physics
Searching for water ice on the Moon
Using NASA's QuickMap website that shows different lunar datasets you will create a map of potential water ice reservoirs at the lunar South Pole. You will use the existing map of permanently shadowed regions, along with hydrogen detection data from other orbital instruments (e.g. LCROSS, LEND) to identify areas where there are multiple sources of evidence for water ice at the surface. You will learn how to view different lunar datasets with NASA's QuickMap tool along with coding skills to view datasets and create geologic maps. You will write up a research paper with your findings and include a literature review on lunar water ice detections and why they are important for human exploration and in-situ resource utilization.
Physics
Make a podcast to interview scientists about their work
This project will enable students to identify their core interests within biology, engage leaders of the scientific community through cold (and warm) outreach, learn to ask questions to aid their own understanding of complex topics, and break down complex topics for general readers through spoken word and organization. Students will leverage widely used podcast-building tools (like Audacity) to create media where they can take creative freedom in how they communicate topics that are interesting to them.
Ethics, Biology
Write a review article about a genetic disease you care about
This project will introduce students to foundations in genetics through investigating genetic diseases. Students will take time to identify a genetic disease that interests them, learn how to use databases of peer-reviewed information (i.e. PubMed, Google Scholar) to identify relevant primary literature, break down a scientific paper, and structure a literature review that maintains focus on a clear thesis, using primary scientific literature to support their claims.
Ethics, Biology
Analyzing publicly available sequencing data to answer questions
In this project, you will need to do a lot of tutorials to learn how to analyze big data sets. However, once you have those skills, you can download publicly available data and start asking your own questions. During this project, we will work on a biological area and analysis skills simultaneously. Depending on your level of coding skills, this could be a project that requires a lot of time in between sessions. But, you will learn a valuable skill for future labs.
Cancer, Biology
Interpreting scientific data through art
Every field and every question has its own tools to investigate answers, each with its own unique dataset. One of the hard parts of research is learning to interpret and explain these data, whose abstract numerical values can be difficult to translate back into their biological meanings for others to understand. Artists are well-versed in making abstract ideas concrete, and so previous programs I've helped to create thrive on the process of translating complex research into intuitively grasped concepts through visual art. In this project, students can review the literature to identify data or collections of data they would like to interpret through creation of a piece of visual art. Some examples might include "Circadian Rhythms" by Kirell Benzi Studio and "Climate Change Data" by Jill Pelto Art. In a life sciences context, big data sets like RNAseq or "omics" data especially benefit from these interpretations. Successfully completing this project will require students to review primary literature, understand how scientific data was generated, analyzed, and interpreted, work with scientific data to contextualize or even re-interpret it, and integrate their creativity and communication skills to convey research findings through their artwork. While not a requirement, students may also choose to focus on research from labs they would like to work with as undergraduates, then work on outreach communications to share their art with the lab. The artwork created will be valuable for art's sake, but can also be leveraged to demonstrate deep understanding of and initiative for academic research topics, which colleges and research labs look for in recruits. Anyone can cold email a lab their resume, but who can send a lab's next graphical abstract?? Potential outcomes include visual aids that can be shared with and used by the research labs that originally published the data, pieces that can be submitted to scientific art contests and included in art portolios, and introductions to university principal investigators and faculty.
Biotech, Biology
Research Paper - How does the brain repair itself after injury?
In this project, you will write a scientific review paper exploring how the brain responds and adapts after injury such as traumatic brain injury or stroke. Topics may include neuroplasticity, inflammation, and the role of supporting glial cells. You will learn how to find and critically evaluate scientific literature and synthesize it into a coherent review paper. Through this process, you will develop skills in scientific reading, interpretation, and writing while gaining a deeper understanding of brain repair and recovery after injury.
Neuroscience
Cardiac Devices
I would love to work with a student for an integrative device that helps patients in heart failure. Rather than be bed-bound, this device will integrate artifical intelligence to regulate an internal pump that supports circulation and heart rythms in those with the sickest hearts.
Biology, Engineering, Chemistry, Medicine
Galois Theory and Polynomial Symmetries
You've heard of the quadratic formula. Maybe you've even heard of the cubic formula. There's even a quartic formula... but not a formula for degree 5 polynomials. The reason is a deep theory about the symmetries of roots of polynomials. A project on Galois theory could study what symmetries do and how they lead to these formulas.
Math, Statistics, Physics
Wetlands, Youth Advocacy, and Environmental Economics in East Africa
This project examines how wetlands support communities, economies, and climate resilience, with a focus on East Africa. Students will explore the economic and environmental value of wetlands, including flood protection, water access, biodiversity, tourism, agriculture, and public health. Rather than treating conservation as only an environmental issue, the project frames wetlands as public assets shaped by policy decisions, community action, and competing development pressures. Students may investigate case studies such as Manguo Wetland in Kenya, examining how urban growth, land use, pollution, deforestation, and weak enforcement affect fragile ecosystems. The project will also consider the role of youth advocacy, local organizations, and public institutions in protecting natural resources. Students will learn how to ask practical policy questions, such as whether conservation programs create economic benefits, how governments can balance development and ecological protection, and how community voices can influence environmental decision making. Through guided research, students will work with policy reports, environmental data, case studies, and academic sources to evaluate the relationship between sustainability and economic development. By the end of the project, students will be able to explain how environmental economics can help communities protect natural resources while also supporting livelihoods, equity, and long term resilience.
Economics
