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
Riots, Parties, and Protests: Performative Strategies, Political Projects
How can theatre and performance help us understand the politics of protest? We'll use performance as a lens for digging into the strategies of political and social movements. We'll analyze how groups and individuals articulate their goals and use their bodies to disrupt and reimagine everyday spaces.
Music, Arts
Narrative or Systematic Review
Read and process current scientific papers in a topic area of your choice. There can be a variety of outcomes, including a formal paper aimed at a science audience (such as a narrative or systematic review) or something public-facing, like a video, blog post, or podcast. The point is to distill a huge body of information and communicate it in a clear way. What are some possible topics? For example, how are whole-brain networks altered during the progression of dementia? Why is the name and function of everyday objects difficult to identify, or personal memories hard to recall? Maybe your interest is more medical and you want to review current pharmacological or behavioral treatment. Maybe your interest is more theoretical and you want to understand how concepts are represented in the mind and brain. You decide the direction!
Music, Biology, Psychology
Community engagement platform
Creating a community engagement platform for high school students. This project will involve designing and developing a website that serves as a hub for students to connect, share resources, collaborate on projects, and engage in various activities.
Music, Arts, Business
An Expressive Video Art Piece
Have you ever wanted to use visuals and sound to tell an evocative story? This project might be for you. You will take images (still or moving), that can either be from your favorite movies or captured by your own camera, and sequence these shots into a compelling narrative of your choosing. Additionally, you will use audio to enhance this narrative. These can be sounds that you find, record, or create. When you complete this project, you will have a better understanding of the relationship between sonic and visual language, and gain experience manipulating, editing, mixing, and blending these variables to create a compelling video art piece that strikes a chord with the audience.
Music
Punk, Goth and Alt Influences on Building Community in Marginalized Populations.
This can be a podcast or presentation on the rising influence of alt lifestyles in building community and belonging in marginlaized communities. It can include interviews with current alt and goth artists and research on the healing powers of music.
Music, Psychology, Arts
Do nervous jitters actually help you do better?
Induce an anxious state in people (make them watch a 5 minute jump scare video) and then have them complete a reaction-time task to see if an aroused internal state effects performance. Compare this group with a control group. (this project could go in many different directions, there are lots of possibilities/variations!)
Music, Neuroscience
Brainstorming Scientific Project Ideas and Assisting with Research Methodology
I can help brainstorm and develop ideas for research, including in cancer, neuroscience, biology, immunology, psychology, microbiology, pharmacology, stem cell biology, genetics, virology etc
Biotech, Music, Business
What does that even mean?
Word definitions change over time and evolve to mean wildly different things now than when they were written. Old texts often mean more than meets the eye!
Music
Win a Computer Vision or Machine Learning Challenge!
The premier conferences in the computer vision and machine learning fields often put out seasonal challenges, allowing researchers to develop a rapid solution (usually in just a few months) to an exciting problem. For advanced students who have time to devote towards one of these competitions, I would be excited to serve as your coach and mentor towards these projects. Please visit the CVPR website for an idea of past competitions!
Music, AI/ML
Tik Tok, Creator and Destroyer of Worlds
Tik Tok is everything right now.... so let's get critical about it! We'll consider how Tik Tok allows niche creators to build ephemeral communities, and we'll think through the promise and the pain contained within those temporary virtual spaces. We'll draw on theory from visual culture studies, media studies, and performance studies to examine how Tik Tok functions and its role in our present moment.
Music, Arts
Code the Enigma Cipher in Python!
Want a challenging, yet fun introduction to coding in Python? In this project, you will learn how to code (and break) the famous Enigma cipher from World War II. You will learn the fundamentals of cryptography, encryption, and decryption and even learn a little bit of the history of spies and secret codes!
Music, Computer Science, Math
Algebra through the millenia
This typically dry high school math topic in fact has a rich and entertaining history. Starting with Babylonian accountants, proceeding to dueling Italian monks, and finally arriving at the abstract theory of groups, you will build up a mathematical understanding of algebra alongside the thinkers who dreamed it up. Some key topics we will touch upon include - roots of general polynomial equations - defining numbers through algebraic equations - determinants and linear equations - basic group theory We will work together on picking an appropriate topic or equation to explore in depth and then you will make a short "Numberphile"-style Youtube video that presents your concept to an interested but non-expert audience.
Music, Math, AI/ML
Alternatives to Pathologizing LGBTQ+ Identities
Historically, LGBTQ+ identity in certain cultures has been pathologized. If such people were not pathologized, what other options might there be for integrating them into society? What would it look like? Has that approach been taken in any cultures, places, or times? What was the impact of not pathologizing? Can you make any practical recommendations for transitioning away from pathologization and toward integration in one small way?
Music, Psychology
Learning Various Skills Related to Building a Startup
I can assist with: finding a product market fit, primary market research, developing a novel business plan, the financial aspects of running a startup, storytelling, creating a resume and LinkedIn for optimal branding, idea generation and brainstorming, customer discovery and interviews, lead generation and growth strategies, basic UX/UI, creating a mockup app via various online softwares, how to find seed funding, sourcing and applying to startup competitions, pitch deck generation etc
Biotech, Music, Business
Exploring Identities Through Multimedia
As my final project for a study abroad program I did in Rabat, Morocco, I filmed an experimental documentary of a 20-year-old Moroccan woman to capture her life, dreams, vision, and identity. I am very interested in exploring various identities and the way different aspects of society, such as culture, gender, language, class, race, and religion affect identities through film and other media. If you are interesting in creating and portraying unique stories and people through multimedia (film, podcasts, music, art, etc.), I would be happy to help you!
Music, Social, Arts, Creative Writing, Social Science, Cognitive
On the origins of algorithmic injustice
This project explores how it is that injustice can arise at the algorithmic level. Algorithmic injustice occurs when algorithmic decision-making procedures systematically harm certain individuals in virtue of their social identities. For example, a recidivism algorithm might predict that a Black individual is more likely to re-offend, a prediction which in turn affects their sentencing. This project explores human bias at the level of training data as one possible source of algorithmic injustice.
Music, Philosophy, Ethics
Where Do We Go From Here? -
From August to December 2020, the Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie podcast and Creative Generation collaborated with twenty-two inspiring Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, educators, and community activists through the “We Can’t Go Back.” The interviews aggregated leadership strategies, educational tools, and an archive of the stories of BIPOC professionals whose work took action - inspired by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other countless victims at the hands of police - to further community understanding, counteract White Supremacy, and disassemble anti-Blackness in cultural and educational systems. This cumulative reflection highlights the many anti-racist, liberatory, and intersectional feminist practices, strategies, and fundamental shifts in arts and cultural work – both pedagogical and institutional – to reimagine a future to which the arts education field may move toward. Readers are invited to pause and reflect on the question: If we can't go back, where do we go from here?
Music, Arts
Parent Evaluation of the UCLA TIES Infant Mental Health (IMH) program.
Develop an online parent survey as well as conduct qualitative interviews with referred foster/adoptive parents. The objective would be to obtain input from foster and adoptive parents participating in IMH to analyze the effectiveness of this program, perceptions of relationships with TIES, and if perceptions of relationships differed between families and UCLA TIES clinicians. The survey should include demographic and family history data that can be used to identify children that have been placed in care with higher risk factors (e.g., prior abusive history, number of placements, age of placement) who are statistically likely to experience emotional, social, and academic dysregulation in life. This evacuation is intended to be used to improve the quality of services received by adoptive/foster parents so that children placed in resource care are wholly supported.
Psychiatry, Music, Neuroscience, Social, Psychology, Social Science, Nutrition, Cognitive, Public Health, Organizational Leadership
Mini-Musical
A short dramatic piece featuring original music and lyrics, about anything ranging from, say, a dinner date gone wrong to an epic period piece about the history of the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights. Whatever you're passionate about, let's musicalize it!
Music
Liberatory Pedagogy: Radical and Transformative Ways to Teach and Study the Humanities
One of my greatest joys is exploring how studying the humanities in collaboration with others can build community and address the joys and sorrows of human experience, in ways often avoided in traditional academic settings. Looking to scholars such as bell hooks for inspiration and guidance, we can talk about ways to make the humanities more serviceable to, well, humanity, than they sometimes are on university campuses.
Music, Philosophy, Linguistics
