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
What's in my water?
Most water contains heavy metal ions such as copper, iron, and zinc. Not all metal ions are bad but at high concentrations they can be unsafe. In this project you could collect water samples within your community and measure the metal ion levels such as ferric and ferrous water. In this project you might learn more analytical chemistry techniques and explore a question relevant to public health. At the end of this project you should be able to put together a written report in the style of a scientific article or a scientific poster.
Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry, Public Health
How aging changes the immune and cardiovascular systems
Aging changes a lot of things is the body including your immune system. The immune system is important for protecting us against pathogens. How does aging change our responses to different pathogens? This project would investigate how pathogens differently (or similarly) impact the immune response of young and old individuals.
Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry
Arduino Project
We can build a small mechanical device that is controlled by an Arduino and DAQ card that we programed using LabVIEW or MATLAB. There are many mechanical devices that we can build using basic circuit elements and small motors.
Physics, Chemistry, Math
Central Dogma Board game
Expand upon your current understanding of topics related to biology, chemistry, genetics, and evolution by building a board game that makes complex concepts fun and accessible to the general public. At the intersection of science and education, you will design and build a board game centered around the central dogma of molecular biology (how DNA transcribes RNA to make protein) and how alterations in the coding and non-coding regions affect development and contribute to evolution. In this project, you will break down biochemical processes and demonstrate how small changes in genotype can lead to variations in phenotype.
Biology, Chemistry
Create a New Biomaterial
Students would learn to find, read, and synthesize new academic research in the biomaterials field. This project would allow students to brainstorm their own cool biomaterial that could be used to heal the human body based on the gaps in current literature. We could then would write a proposal based on this new idea.
Biotech, Biology, Engineering, Chemistry
Predict gold content in minerals using machine learning
Apply different types of machine learning algorithms to geological data to try and predict gold concentrations in different ore samples. This project will be focused on writing a code using Python and studying different machine learning approaches.
Computer Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science
Designing Disease Treatments
Find a disease without a cure and design a potential drug treatment. Develop drug delivery vehicles such as microparticles, nanoparticles, and/or hydrogels to design disease treatments.
Chemistry, Math
Understanding Traditional Medicinal Plants through Modern Science
The field of ethnobotany takes inspiration from plants used in traditional medicines as a starting point for further research. This project would begin by picking a traditional culture with documented medicinal plants. I would help the student find some plants of interests based on the traditional use and then survey the literature for what kinds of molecules are found in the plant. From there, these different classes of molecules could be further studied using current scientific literature to hypothesize which chemicals in the plant might be responsible for its therapeutic capabilities. This could culminate in a final report walking through the process of discovery. Through this project, students would be able to learn more about other cultures, how to search the scientific literature, and how to form scientific hypotheses.
Biology, Chemistry
Water Absorbent Polymers for Home Gardening
You'll conduct experiments to determine what commercially-available water absorbent polymers are useful and cost-effective for home gardeners and write a research paper summarizing your results. You'll dive into polymer and agriculture science while also learning research skills such as: 1) How to perform a literature search, 2) How to design a robust experimental plan, 3) How to collect and analyze data, 4) How to write academically.
Biology, Engineering, Chemistry
A model to rank viruses based on their probability to cause the next pandemic.
A list of 106 zoonotic viruses was compiled. The receptor binding domain (RBD) as well as the host entry receptor(s) (HER) for the 106 zoonotic viruses, 46 human infective viruses and 54 human/animal host entry receptors were obtained from the literature and/or from the UNIPROT database. Ten training virus pairs whose vaccines were cross-reactive (for each pair) were BLASTed to find similarities. The values of the maximum score, total score, query cover, percent identity, and E-value for each virus pair were taken as input parameters to formulate an equation whose output; the cross reactivity value (CV); was indicative of the extent of cross reactivity between the virus pair. A CV < 1 indicated that the RBDs’ of test virus or entry receptor pairs were similar and hence the pair would have cross-reactive antibodies. The CV between each zoonotic virus and 46 human infective viruses was determined. For those pairs where the CV < 1, a Virus Component Number (VCN) was calculated. The VCN was the product of the affinity; i.e the inverse of the average of CV values for those pairs whose CV <1 and the avidity; i.e. the number of virus pairs for which the CV < 1. Similarly, the probability of a virus infecting the host was determined by using HER similarity scores obtained through BLAST for the receptors of 57 viruses along with obtaining the Receptor Component Number (RCN). A relationship was identified between the number of receptors for a virus and its RCN, and this equation was used to find all subsequent RCNs. The VCN and RCN for each virus were added, resulting in a Total Score that was ranked from greatest to least. Viruses that are highly prevalent in the human population were excluded, and the top ranked 11 emerging viruses were selected because they had individual case fatality rates of > 50%. Based on the VCN and RCN values, our model can predict which existing vaccines would be cross reactive against the emerging viruses, hence pre-empting and preventing pandemic genesis by vaccinating geographically susceptible populations. Additionally, the list is small enough that resources can be mustered to research, manufacture and stockpile vaccines and/or antiviral drugs against these eleven viruses. The model is a much needed valuable tool in the as yet sparse toolkit of predicting and preventing pandemics caused by lethal zoonotic viruses. This project is complete and has been published in the Journal of High School Science at https://jhss.scholasticahq.com/article/29927-a-model-to-rank-viruses-based-on-their-probability-to-cause-the-next-pandemic
Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry
Investigating Mechanisms of Action of Potential Antibiotics
We know that antibiotics kill harmful bacteria that make us sick, but how exactly do the antibiotics that we take actually enter and bind to cellular targets, stopping infection? Why does a certain antibiotic kill certain types of bacteria, but not others? Through a genetic engineering approach, we can investigate how many antibiotics are responsible for killing certain types of bacteria.
Biology, Chemistry
Concerns about Water Website
As different issues surrounding water arise and approaches to resolve these issues are developed, it’s important to consider the opinions of people in the community. People may have extreme viewpoints on their water resources, and having insight into these viewpoints can greatly benefit researchers. For this project, you would interview community members in an area of interest about their concerns and viewpoints about their water resources, this could be compiled on a website that could be added to over time. If previously conducted interviews are accessible, perhaps also creating a map of different interview opinions would be interesting.
Biology, Engineering, Chemistry
Solving Medical Problems
Let's identify a problem in patient care and develop a device design or other solution to help address it. We will learn the basics of the design process including needs assessment, research, prototyping, and testing. Students can learn to use any tools they need, including but not limited to CAD, 3D printing, physical manufacturing methods, and Matlab. If you can dream it you can make it!
Cancer, Neuroscience, Engineering, Photography, Chemistry
Identifying the best places to land a rover on Mars for a future NASA mission
This project will combine multiple disciplines such as chemistry, geology, topography, and biology. You will study the Mars map in details, understand what type of data Mars rovers collect and why, and what are the biggest Martian questions that need answers! You can write a research paper based on your findings.
Computer Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science
Bioinspiration: Do animals hold the answers?
Can the toxins frogs produce help us fight antibiotic resistant bacteria strains? How can understanding how lizards and newts regrow their limbs help us improve wound treatment? Why do tilapia skins help with burns? Discover the role of animals in the development of modern medicine as well as its potential. Share your findings in a research proposal, article, or presentation.
Biology, Cancer, Engineering, Chemistry
Research article/Topic review
In this project, you will write a research/topic review that you will choose. The topics can vary from side effect of a medication, or a specific disease. We will find publications of the studies that were already done, taking conclusions and do our own review.
Biology, Neuroscience, Surgery, Chemistry
Use of fluorophores for real time analysis of viral fusion.
Enveloped viruses such as influenza and herpes have an additional barrier to cell entry and that is the fusion of the viral membrane with the cell membrane. Traditional methods often measure downstream effects such as pathological cell changes or expression of viral proteins to determine if entry has occurred. With the improvements in microscopy and the ability to detect single particles fluorophores play a pivotal role in the detection and analysis of the viral life cycle. Fluorophores can be used in conjunction with live cell assays and microscopy to track the virus and with the right configuration reveal key steps in fusion. In vitro experiments have also been used to determine many biophysical properties of viruses as well. In this review we will review the different kinds of experiments that can be conducted using fluorescence microscopy with recent improvements, the use of fluoroscopy for determining biophysical properties of viruses and highlight fluorophores with unique properties and how they could potential be used with enveloped viruses.
Chemistry
Studying the beginning of the solar system through meteorites
How do scientists classify meteorites? What are Calcium-Aluminum-Rich inclusions in meteorites and why are they so important to scientists? Can we calculate the age of the Solar System using meteorites? What type of research equipment is used to study meteorites? Use chemistry, geology, and other sciences to answer these questions! You can write a research paper based on your findings.
Computer Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science
Coral Reef Health
Formulating your own research ideas can seem like a daunting task from afar but is a lot more manageable once you start brainstorming. A project idea we could work on can involve using existing datasets to tackle an ecological question. For example, using a dataset to analyze coral reef health over time and assess impacts (i.e., bleaching events, disturbances, high temperatures, etc.) by doing basic statistical analysis. This project will involve learning to use excel and potentially R to run statistics. But don’t be scared about having to use math if you're interested in marine science. There are many resources that can help explain statistics, or we could look at the social dimensions of reefs, management, and conservation by analyzing environmental policy instead. There’s so many approaches that you can take to focus on your own strengths or what you hope to learn and improve on.
Computer Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science
Health Care in the World is not the Same
Health inequality is a problem that affects different populations in the entire world. This problem causes individuals to face worse health outcomes compared to those who can access all resources. This inequality can source from disparities in health care access relating to cost or location, ethnic and racial motives, as well as many others. For this project, there could be many potential outcomes. One could be a detailed review and understanding of these disparities. Another could be a review and proposed solution to one of the situations. A certain medical device that is very necessary and has a high cost could be analyzed and a lower cost alternative created, either in SolidWorks, Creo or just a drawn design.
Biology, Cancer, Chemistry
