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
Gene network analysis in human disease
Gene networks are promising methods to predict connections between genes and human disease. In this project, we will use gene expression and biology pathways (from Enrichr) to develop a neural network to predict disease (i.e. COVID-19).
AI/ML
What Makes a Country Rich?
You can probably name some rich countries and some poor countries, but what makes a rich country rich? Is it natural resources? Their system of government? Their "human capital" -- education and civic spirit? Or is it just a capricious accident of history we have no control over? Whatever you think, the chess grand master Ben Feingold once said (I'm paraphrasing), "unless you know why you gave you answer, your answer isn't right!" How would you go above proving your theory? You could look at case studies, for example, what did the USA do in the post-war years? What did China do under Deng Xiaoping, or Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew? But... how do we know if these methods can generalize? To go from the general to the particular, this is the role of statistics! Using econometric analysis -- a fancy way of saying statistics -- we can test theories about what causes economic growth, and try to uncover some ideas for leaders and politicians who want to create prosperity for their nations.
Computer Science, Economics, Math, AI/ML, Finance
Learning in a Recurrent Neural Network
With this project you will train a recurrent neural network to do a task of your choosing -- maybe one that animals or people are trained to do. What aspects of training affect how well the network learns or how it solves the task? With this project you will strengthen your Python and Machine Learning skills, and you can delve into the neurobiology of learning as much or as little as you want. You could create a scientific paper, blog post, presentation, or video about your work. You could also explore how biological constraints on neural networks affect learning and task performance, or work with different learning algorithms.
Neuroscience, Computer Science, AI/ML
Computer Recognition of Directed Gestures
After spending a year in virtual classrooms, what are some of the small, nonverbal interactions you miss from in-person conversations? Eye contact & directed gestures are two modalities of communication we usually take for granted, but over Zoom, it can be very hard to tell to whom someone is waving or pointing. What if a computer vision system could help in determining & communicating this information? In this project, you can research methods in computer vision and machine learning that will allow for gesture recognition. Beginning from a standard desktop workstation, you can further experiment with your methods, extending to other poses and contexts.
Music, AI/ML
Create a graph database from unstructured data
Journalists and social scientists are turning to NLP to understand complex relationships among documents and the entities they reference. An example is a story I worked on for WIRED, for which we built a graph database out of Twitter posts, and used this to discover mistakes in Twitter's disinformation policy. https://www.wired.com/story/how-americans-wound-up-on-twitters-list-of-russian-bots/
Arts, AI/ML, Game Design
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Machine learning/artificial intelligence is a wide field and we can do anything you want, if you have a problem you've ever been curious we can try and solve it with machine learning. - Do you have a favorite computer game? We could train a machine to play it. - Do you want a computer to answer your homework questions for your? We can make it do that. - Do you want to turn your pictures into artwork that looks like your favorite artist (or combination of artists) painted? We can do that. - You will also learn the fundamentals of machine learning from linear regression to neural networks and bayesian inference learning. - You will learn the math behind the algorithms and the tools to quickly build up advanced neural networks in a small amount of code: tensorflow, pytorch, etc.
AI/ML
Wearable Technology:
Interested in wearable tech? This project will involve you working on brainstorming ideas of what types of wearable technology would be interesting to have. We will look at current technologies that are being implemented, and I will show you some of the work that I am working on for my graduate research work.
Biotech, AI/ML
SymptomSolver: AI-Powered Symptom Analysis and Treatment Recommendations
SymptomSolver is an innovative platform designed for students to delve into the intersection of healthcare and technology. In this project, students will develop a web-based application that uses AI and machine learning to analyze user-reported symptoms and provide personalized healthcare recommendations. The project journey involves: Research and Development: Students will start by researching various AI and machine learning algorithms suited for medical data analysis. They will explore different symptom databases and medical literature to understand how symptoms correlate with conditions. Application Development: The core of the project is to develop the SymptomSolver application. Students will code the platform, integrating AI models to analyze symptoms and suggest treatments, home remedies, and professional consultations. Testing and Iteration: After development, students will test the application, gather feedback, and refine the algorithm to improve accuracy and user experience. Final Presentation: The project culminates in a comprehensive presentation, where students showcase their application, discuss the technology behind it, and reflect on the impact of AI in healthcare. End Result: Students will present their findings and the developed application through a combination of a detailed research paper and an interactive presentation. The research paper will cover their algorithms, development process, and analysis of the application's effectiveness. The interactive presentation will demonstrate the application in action, allowing the audience to understand its functionality and potential impact on healthcare accessibility. This project not only teaches valuable technical skills but also encourages students to consider ethical implications and the real-world application of AI in improving health outcomes.
AI/ML
How Algorithmic Responsibility can Promote Racial Justice
This project would advocate for studying Algorithmic Responsibility, specifically regarding Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT, through the lens of racial social justice to improve access to technology and decrease the chance that artificial intelligence might disparately impact Black Americans.
AI/ML
2D/3D Registration of Lego Bricks
Registration is the process of aligning two different measurements of the same object. For example, in computer vision, it is often desirable to stitch two photos together to create a panorama, thereby registering one photo with the overlapping portion of the other. 2D/3D registration is when an existing 3D model, like a CAD surface, is aligned with an image of the same object, either simulated or in the real world. This has applications in medical imaging, such as aligning a 2D X-ray image with a 3D CT scan. In this projects, students will curate a dataset for 2D/3D registration of LEGO bricks and train a keypoint detection algorithm to perform the registration. LEGOs are well suited to this task because 3D models and simulated images are readily available. Minimum deliverables include a dataset hosted on Kaggle and an arXiv paper describing it. The maximum deliverables includes a trained registration algorithm and accompanying paper.
Creative Writing, AI/ML
Geospatial AI
We have had consistent and accurate data collected about the Earth's surface for more than 3 decades now, but only in this new era of Big-Data are we able to leverage it. Understanding the qualities of the earths surface, detecting specific environmental features, and classifying the land use of different parts of the earths surface, is crucial to do in realtime. Computer vision has offered many techniques that can be explored to perform some of these tasks.
Neuroscience, AI/ML
Mind-Bending: Do Different Altered States of Consciousness Share Common Brain Activity?
This project revolves around the intriguing question of whether different altered states of consciousness, such as those induced by meditation and lucid dreaming, share common neurophysiological traits. Our goal is to conduct a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies to identify possible shared patterns of brain activity between these states. Specifically, we're curious to explore if similar regions or networks in the brain are activated or suppressed in both scenarios, suggesting a universal neurological pathway to altered states of consciousness. In the subsequent phase of the project, we'll delve deeper into these identified commonalities, scrutinizing how these neural changes correlate with subjective experiences recounted by individuals. The knowledge gleaned from this research could potentially illuminate the neurological underpinnings of altered states of consciousness, and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the human mind. This could ultimately lead to novel strategies to enhance cognitive flexibility or treat conditions linked with abnormal states of consciousness.
Neuroscience, AI/ML, Cognitive
The whirlpool in your BRAIN!
Systems neuroscience has seen a major transformation in the last decade as scientists are beginning to understand that the relationship between neural activity and behavior is less straightforward than we once thought. In fact, it may be more akin to the relationship between a whirlpool and a piece of paper you drop in. In this project, you'll learn about this 'dynamical systems' theory and analyze real neural data to see it for yourself!
Neuroscience, Psychology, AI/ML
Predict patient vulnerability to COVID-19
For this project you will use patient demographics such as age, gender, pre-existing conditions, to build a machine learning model to predict how likely a patient is to suffer severe illness. This model can be deployed to the frontline to triage patients and help direct attention to patients who need it the most.
Economics, AI/ML
Creating an online resource for a disease of vision
By the year 2030, 150 million people around the world are expected to be affected by diabetic retinopathy, a vision-impairing condition caused by diabetes. Over 20% of 80-year-olds in the United States are affected by macular degeneration, a (usually) age-related disease that affects reading and the ability to accomplish activities of daily living. Myopia (or “near-sightedness”) affects over a quarter of the world’s population, including over 85% of teenagers in some Asian countries. Visual diseases such as these are among the most common and significant medical conditions that our society faces today. For this project you will: • Learn about important aspects of a visual disease that interests you: its etiology, pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, therapies, prevalence, psychosocial impact, and more • Summarize what you have learned in the form of a website that is targeted towards a specific population, such as children, patients, scientists, or voters • Present the same data in multiple ways and consider what effects your presentation choices have on your audience • Develop basic skills in and knowledge about web design, as well as a more advanced understanding of how to make websites and other media accessible to people with visual impairment
AI/ML, Medicine
Curating recent advancements of CAR-T therapy.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies has significantly improved outcomes in cancer patients. Over the last several years, there has been many variations of CAR-T therapy, such as armored CAR-T therapy, dual CAR-T therapy, self-destruct CAR-T therapy, etc. Additionally, CAR-T therapy has been applied to other diseases. It would be very impactful to curate these different variations, the pros/cons of each variant, and the use case of each of these variants.
Biology, Cancer, Engineering, AI/ML
Spotify Music Recommendation System
Create a Nearest Neighbor recommendation algorithm in Python to predict a playlist given an input song a user likes. This project would involve: • Harvesting a massive dataset of songs from Spotify via a developer account • Vectorizing and cleaning song metadata into feature library with Pandas DataFrames • Implementing ‘lazy’ learning algorithm for playlist generation • Experimentation with distance and similarity functions • Assess model performance by evaluating a test sample of users like their generated playlists
Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, AI/ML
Self-Directed Research Project in Neuroscience/Psychology
Maybe you're interested in better understanding the mechanisms of a neurological or psychiatric condition. Maybe you've noticed a neat pattern in human behavior that you want to explore. Or maybe you're curious about how people form new memories, become bilingual, or develop prejudices. If you find the subject of human brain and behavior fascinating, then let's chat! Through this project, students will learn how to effectively read and evaluate scientific papers, devise their own hypotheses, propose potential experiments, and write their own scientific article. Depending on the type of project selected, students may also be guided in the process of obtaining human survey responses, performing basic analyses on open-source datasets, conducting a meta-analysis in a subfield, and/or writing a scientific review article. If desired, students may choose to submit their papers to youth science journals, and will be guided through the editing, peer-review, and publication process. Prerequisites: Enthusiasm, desire to learn, and a healthy attitude towards receiving constructive feedback on their ideas.
Neuroscience, AI/ML, Cognitive
Robots, Bubbles, and Efficient Markets
There's an old joke in economics that goes like this. A financial economist is walking with his student, and the student sees a $100 dollar bill on the ground. The student is excited, and goes to pick it up, but the professor stops him and says, "there couldn't be $100 on the ground. If there were, someone would have already picked it up!" The professor is expressing the "Efficient Markets Hypothesis", that claims all stock prices are correct, because if they weren't someone could buy and sell them to pick up $100. Of course, many economists don't believe this! There is a whole school called Behavioral Economics that studies how markets fail, why prices are wrong, and the human psychology that causes these inefficient markets to emerge. Typically, behavioral economists work with volunteers, who trade stocks or play games (not the fun kind). The economist try to create price bubbles or market frenzies, and show how irrational people are. But what about AIs? We could program AI to play in these game environments together, and see if the same bubbles and market frenzies occur. Do they eventually turn into the efficient professor after playing the game many times? Can they adapt when the rules of the game are changed? What can we learn about ourselves by studying how robots behave in similar situations?
Computer Science, Economics, Math, AI/ML, Finance