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
Genetic Consequences of Population Decline in Endangered Species
Species are vanishing at an alarming rate due to significant challenges such as habitat loss, climate change, and human activities. As population sizes plummet, the genetic diversity of the animals is also lost. Genetic diversity is crucial because it provides the raw material for adaptation, resilience against diseases, and long-term survival. Therefore, understanding the genomic consequences associated with population decline in endangered species is essential for making conservation decisions. In this project, you will not only 1) practice critical research skills, including formulating and testing hypotheses, but also 2) explore scientific literature to gain a basic foundation in population genetics and conservation biology. Additionally, you will 3) learn computational skills to analyze a whole-genome dataset from an endangered species of your choice, enabling you to explore questions related to genetic diversity, inbreeding, and disease.
Biotech
Detecting Audio Events with AI
In this project, a raspberry pi outfitted with a microphone would be used to detect and classify a particular audio event (e.g. glass breaking) via Deep Learning, and send a notification to a mobile device. The applications here range from personal use to enterprise. For example, a home security system to detect break-ins or equipment breaking in a manufacturing setting.
Biotech, Engineering
Healthcare startup business plan and pitch deck
The student will formulate an idea for a startup company based in healthcare or biotechnology and will create a "game plan" for pitching the company to potential stakeholders and investors. The project could serve as the basis for submission to a startup pitch competition.
Biotech
Investment Memo/Thesis in an STEM Area of Interest
In various industries, such as biotech, investment in companies are key to success and drug development. This project is a mock investment memo/thesis! Students will select a target company or sector of interest and thoroughly analyze its market dynamics, competitive landscape, growth prospects, and financial performance. The project will culminate in the creation of a comprehensive investment thesis report, which will include a well-supported investment recommendation backed by robust financial analysis and a persuasive argument. This project will equip participants with essential skills in investment research and decision-making, preparing them for future opportunities in the financial industry.
Biotech, Medicine
Using old medicines in a new way
In this project, you will propose a new way to treat a human disease by finding a new use for an existing medication, a strategy called "drug repurposing." You will select a human disease that interests you, such as Alzheimer's disease or rheumatoid arthritis, to study carefully. You will learn how the disease process occurs and what medications are currently used to treat it. Then, you will search for other medications that might have beneficial effects on relevant physiological pathways. After collecting this information, you will write a persuasive review outlining the factual support, possible advantages, and potential challenges for "re-purposing" your chosen medication. By completing this project, you will gain a deep understanding about the specific biology of a human disease. You will also learn about how new medications are discovered, and how scientific ideas make their way through the various stages of preclinical and clinical testing to become medicine.
Biotech, Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
Scientific Review Paper on 'Reasons tumors are evading our immune system'
In this project, you will read scientific literature to research the various methods tumors use to evade our immune system. Ie. suppressive tumor microenvironment, decreased markers that typically allow immune cells to recognize it, inhibition of molecules that tell immune cells where to find the tumor, etc. This process will teach you the critical skills of finding, accessing, reading, and critically analyzing scientific literature and compiling it into a meaningful review of your own. These are critical skills to learning about new advances in any scientific field.
Biotech, Cancer
Public Health Infographics
Step into the world of public health advocacy by creating informative and compelling infographics. This project involves selecting a vital public health issue, such as the challenges of food safety or the effects of global warming, and transforming this information into visually appealing posters. Our collaboration will focus on researching credible sources, developing a clear project timeline, and enhancing your ability to convey complex information in an accessible way. This project is perfect for honing your skills in scientific communication and visual storytelling, essential in the STEM field and beyond.
Biotech
Microscopic friends for food
Our bodies carry one (!) bacterial cell for every human cell in our body. These little bugs support all kinds of essential processes, and it turns out, the soils we grow our food on are no different. In this project, we investigate how the native microbiome of different soils helps support happy and productive plants.
Biotech, Environmental Science
Make a publication-quality infographic!
Science and art go hand in hand! Indeed, when scientists want to communicate their results to the public, they often choose to use infographics; or, illustrations that convey high-quality scientific information. In this project, you will learn to create your own infographics. You will first ask a scientific question, such as "what types of microbes live at the bottom of the ocean?". Then, you'll read between 6 and 10 research articles about that question, summarizing your findings. Next, you will design an illustration that conveys your findings to an audience of your choice; for example, visitors to a museum exhibit, readers of a scientific magazine, or even visitors to your blog page. You'll use graphic design techniques to create a high quality image that accurately conveys a scientific message to the public. In this project, you'll gain proficiency in reading academic papers, summarizing scientific findings, and communicating those findings to a public audience. You'll think about how to best engage the general public and get them interested in scientific ideas that you think are cool. You'll also get to flex your graphic design muscles and use art programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, or Procreate to design a cool piece of science art. If you love science, but are also inclined towards drawing, painting, or graphic design, this would be a great project for you!
Biotech
SARS-COVID-19 Protease Inhibitors
Since the pandemic began, a race was on to find inhibitors of the main protease of conornavirus. Several structures of the protease have been solved with fragments in the active site. Beginning with a literature review on proteases, one could look at the cornavirus proteases (MERS, SARS, SARS-COVID-19) for structural differences. Analysis of the fragments bound to the crystal structures of SARS-COVID-19 protease may inform future rational efforts for protease inhibitor design.
Biotech, Cancer
Role of CRISPR in Gene Therapies:
As big data is changing the way we approach science, CRIRSP is an emerging technology that many people believe will revolutionize the way we think about food, health, disease. In this project we can dive deep into how CRISPR works and think about where/what parts of the DNA we can target with CRISPR. We will think of outcomes that one will get if you modulate a certain gene, and the potential ethical consequences of gene modification.
Biotech, AI/ML
How does death help regeneration?
While many consider regeneration a largely proliferative event, it is often paired with waves of cell death that are vital to the process. Programmed cell death is also an important component of development in many species. However, the role of these controlled death events has not been fully elucidated, and the existing data has not been synthesized to provide a clearer picture. There are lots of unanswered questions that can be potentially explored through detailed literature reviews.
Biotech, Biology
Machine Learning:
The possibilities are endless here. Whether you're interested in creating a song recommendation system for your friends or taking on a Kaggle challenge (that's a well-known machine learning competition platform, by the way), I can help you navigate through all the essentials of building an end-to-end machine learning workflow. You will learn about common issues and nifty ways to tackle them as well!
Biotech, AI/ML, Statistics
Natural vs. vaccine-acquired immunity: which is better?
This project aims to explore how natural infection and vaccination induce protective immune responses. What happens if you get the COVID vaccine when you've already been infected? What are the pros and cons of natural vs. vaccine-acquired immunity?
Biotech, Biology
Machine learning based genomic and pathology image analysis on the Cancer Genome Atlas
The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is a wealth of open source data including patient health records, genomic sequencing and histology slides. Focusing on a rare cancer would be ideal for this project as they tend to be understudied and even analyses utilizing small datasets could lead to interesting discoveries. Utilizing machine learning techniques we can analyze this data to predict correlations between morphological histology features and mutations, patient survival based on histology or genomic data, etc. My research at the Pathology Image Analysis lab at the Brigham Women’s Hospital is focused on creating and applying deep learning methods to pathology image analysis. There are multiple open sources tools developed by the lab such as CLAM that could be utilized for this project. Website for TCGA: https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/ Website for CLAM: https://github.com/mahmoodlab/CLAM
Biotech
How much does Crohn's Disease cost?
Although Crohn's Disease affects few Americans (~3 million) relative to other diseases, the exact causes of Crohn's are incompletely understood. Subsequently, current therapies for Crohn's are not very effective resulting in high healthcare costs to treat these individuals over the course of their lifetimes. In addition to high costs of healthcare, IBD can significantly diminish quality for these individuals which can result in lost wages among other things. A prospective student could conduct research using available, literature and public databases to quantify the cost of IBD to patients and other stakeholders in the country of their choosing. Students would learn how to read scientific journal articles, synthesize large amounts of data across multiple fields of study, and gain an understanding of the burden of treating a chronic disease. The outcome of this research project would be an article written by the student outlining their findings and offering recommendations as to alleviation of these economic burdens in the future.
Biotech
3D Organ Engineering
Tissue Engineering. Regenerative Medicine. Stem Cells. Organ Transplants. In this exercise, we will explore the principles of engineering tissues and organs from the bottom up. Students will learn the nuances of building a tissue of their choice using the latest bioengineering techniques that are currently available. At the end of the exercise, students will be able to (i) understand the underlying biological and engineering principles of 3D Organ Engineering, (ii) create a tangible project that attempts to tackle a current limitation in 3D Organ Engineering, and (iii) create a short presentation and written proposal on said project.
Biotech
Macrophage plasticity in human diseases
It is well-known that macrophages are essential for combating foreign microbes and pathogens by "eating" them (macro: big; phaegin: eater). This process is called phagocytosis and results in an inflammation. However, a lesser known but equally important function of macrophages is tissue repair, meaning these cells can promote wound healing and cell growth to help recover damaged tissues. Therefore, macrophages are extremely plastic and can easily switch their functions between "killing" and "healing" depending on the body's needs. This plasticity is also the cause of many diseases when the macrophages malfunction, ranging from low-grade chronic inflammation, to autoimmune disease and cancer. In this project, you can perform a literature review on the role of each macrophage mode (pro- vs. anti-inflammatory) in different diseases. You will learn how to 1) understand and critically evaluate scientific data, 2) write a scientific paper, and 3) come up with new ideas and suggestions to design future experiments in order to dissect the unanswered questions in the field.
Biotech
Understanding the role of alternative splicing across neurological diseases
This project will dive into the molecular dynamics behind neurological disorders. Here we will research differences in alternative splicing between healthy patients and those with neurological disorders. Finally you can propose treatments targeting the differential splicing occuring.
Biotech, Cancer, Neuroscience
Create an engineering plan: How to scale up CAR T cell manufacturing (huge bottleneck in the field)
Here we will dive into the difficult process known as upscaling to create cell therapies that can be used to fight cancer. Cell therapies known as "immunotherapies" are therapeutics in which a patients cancer fighting T or NK cells are taken from their blood, enhanced and expanded using a number of techniques and then re-infused into the patient in order to target their cancer. The process from doing this in a small scale to a large scale of millions to billions of engineered cells has a lot of challenges. We will generate an engineering plan to improve this process
Biotech, Cancer
