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
Integrating Neuroethics and Public Policy
The more we understand about the brain and human behavior, the more we need to amend and adjust laws and policies that may do more harm than good. What are some current advances in neuroethics that can directly alter current laws and policies in play?
Neuroscience, Psychology, Arts, History
Students or Professionals of Color in Predominantly White Environments/Industries
What are some of the experiences that BIPOC individuals have within their specific industry or environment? When working or living in predominantly White environments, what is the larger impact on one's self concept and one's psychological well-being? To what extent do BIPOC individuals utilize intrapersonal versus interpersonal coping strategies?
Psychology
Dopamine : more than just a "happiness" neurotransmitter
Dopamine plays an important role in the brain and is often associated with rewards. However, dopamine several aspects of brain and body function including motivation, memory and regulation of motor control. Choose 3 different roles of dopamine to research and create a presentation or write a research paper that delves into the different roles of dopamine in the brain.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
Review: Biological Processes Underlying Metastasis
The proposed project aims to review the underlying biological processes of metastasis, the spread of cancer cells from the primary tumor to distant organs or tissues. Through an in-depth analysis of current literature, the project will explore the molecular mechanisms involved in metastasis, including the role of key signaling pathways, the extracellular matrix, and the immune system. The findings of this project will contribute to a better understanding of metastasis and may inform the development of novel therapeutic strategies to prevent or treat metastatic cancer. This could be a blog, essay, podcast, short film or documentary, poem!
Biology, Cancer, Psychology
Literature Review & Poster
Mentee will learn to find and understand existing research papers to deepen their knowledge of a topic of interest (e.g., how might a poor quality romantic relationship impact physical health), and will learn to consolidate their findings into a research poster presentation and brief research talk.
Social, Psychology
The Category is... Identity
Historically marginalized youth often go unheard, especially when it comes to intersecting identities, such as Black girls. This project will dive deeper into the literature that is currently in educational research as it will explore what is often hidden or dismissed when researching identity-- hair politics, belonging, and colorism. There is such little research on this topic so a literature review exploring the current literature would be critical to the field of education.
Psychology
Educate the public on a topic of your choosing!
Is there a mental health, public health, or social science topic you are passionate about? Do you want to educate people about a medical illness you care about? Hone your teaching and leadership skills while bringing awareness to the public! You can do this by creating a website, a social media platform, or a podcast! I have experience with doing this myself, and can help you learn skills such as Canva to create content you're proud of. Let's brainstorm!
Psychiatry, Biology, Neuroscience, Social, Psychology
What makes people more trusting of technology?
Nowadays, we use technology everyday - to get around, to relax, to communicate with others, to find information, etc. Although technology is everywhere around us, we still struggle with trusting it - many of us probably know the feeling of receiving an ad for a product right after looking it up, which is likely uncomfortable for many. Many people do not feel like they can trust their technology, which may prevent them from benefitting from technology. Given how much we use technology, it is important to understand what characteristics of technology make people more or less likely to trust it, and in turn, use it. If the student finds questions about trust within the context of technology interesting, we can explore a research project in this space.
Psychology, Economics, Social Science, Statistics
How do school athletics affect future physical, social, and economical outcomes
Being a student athlete comes with a lot of responsibilities and a lot of personal lessons. From daily practice to weekly matches, athletes must balance a lot. What are the benefits of engaging in athletics in high school and/or college and are there disadvantages? Through reviewing scientific and anecdotal evidence, we will aim to understand how being a student athlete affects your future health, social connections, and economic success. You will be able learn how to review literature, interview relevant individuals, and write a formal literature review on the topic.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Medicine
COVID-19 and Social Demographics
This would be a systematic literature review of all the current and past studies done on COVID-19 prevalence in the US is potentially associated with social demographics, like race and socioeconomic status. Students will understand how COVID has been studied over the last two years through reading published scientific articles and watching lectures by esteemed medical professionals. They will apply and synthesize this information to write a scientific review on how COVID-19 contraction and treatment is influenced by factors like gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Literature, Medicine
Brain & Behavior: Exploring Findings from Developmental Affective Neuroscience
Research has only just begun to probe the "final frontier" of science - the brain. Key questions stemming from the burgeoning field of Developmental Affective Neuroscience include: How does early life adversity impact brain development and psychological functioning across the lifespan? How does the brain shape behavior and how does behavior shape the brain? What are key brain areas involved in the processing of emotions and formation of memories? What is the role of epigenetic factors on the brain and subsequent mental health outcomes?
Neuroscience, Psychology, Arts
Write an academic article
In this project, you will learn all the skills you need to write a scientist-quality article for publication or inclusion in your portfolio. First, you will narrow down a specific biomedical topic that interests you. Then, we will work together to critically read and interpret professional academic literature. Finally, you will learn how to synthesize what you have read and present it in a professional format. You will also learn about how to succeed in the scientific publication process.
Biotech, Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
Rethinking the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases
Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide. While billions of dollars have been spent trying to find treatments for the disease, very few drugs and therapies have had a meaningful impact on slowing down disease progression. This is often because by the time someone is diagnosed with a disease, it has progressed too far for a treatment to have a substantial effect. Some recent approaches to treatment have turned to looking for early indications of the disease (termed "biomarkers") that can occur before the onset of symptoms. By diagnosing disease and beginning treatment before symptoms arise, these treatments could have a more profound effect in slowing down the progression of disease. Students could review the recent progress being made on identifying biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, and either write a paper or even record a podcast on their findings!
Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
Straight to the Source: e-Communities for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and the Emerging Case for Harm Reduction in the Treatment of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury
How do we make treatments for non suicidal self injury more effective? This project investigates how harm reduction interventions and data from social media could be used to improve our treatments for self-harm.
Psychology
Develop a protocol for your own systematic review
Systematic reviews are one form of research that can help fill a gap in what we don't know about a specific topic. Systematic reviews are like literature reviews, except much more systematic as it follows a research protocol. They are much more extensive than literature reviews because you are trying to capture every published article to fully describe your topic based on a wide breadth of evidence. What you would do is choose a topic that we don't know very much about, such as evidence based interventions in jail populations or evidence based interventions in local public health departments. I can work with you to develop a concrete topic area. Then we would work together to develop your own protocol to conduct the systematic review. These typically can lead to academic publications (I have 3 currently published). If you are interested in learning how systematic reviews work as a support team member, I also have an active protocol that we are conducting with partners at Michigan State.
Social, Psychology, Statistics
An Analysis on Why the Legal Drinking Age is 21 Years Old
An American adult can basically do anything he or she wishes at 18 years old. He or she can vote in elections, purchase a gun in some states, even get a mortgage - but an 18 year old is unable to legally consume alcohol. Why is that, and how did this nationwide disparity in legal age come to be? This project examines the laws and cultural shifts in America and how they led to having the drinking age not be 18 years old, but instead 21.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Social Science
Neurodiversity through History
How do our thinking styles vary, and how has the way we talk about that variation changed over time? What can we learn from the past about how unique "brains" are viewed across different times and places? This project could take the form of a written research paper or a presentation of research in a video or a podcast.
Social, Psychology, Math, Statistics
A Daily Diary Study of Yoga's Effects on High School Students
Research suggests that yoga classes have positive psychological effects for high-school students. In this project the student would find friends (volunteers) to participate in yoga classes 3x/week. Every day these volunteers would rate their mood, degree of mindfulness, and connection to their body. After a month the student would collect these "daily diaries" and examine if the data changed overtime. Based on these results the student could share a proposal with their school about incorporating yoga into the curriculum.
Neuroscience, Psychology, Statistics
How trauma becomes central to our life story
When people are exposed to potentially traumatic events, memories of the traumatic event sometimes become central to their life story. What's more, their ability to recall other, non-traumatic memories can become weakened, a phenomenon known as autobiographical memory disturbance or overgeneralized memory. What causes this disruption to memory? How can clinicians treat these disturbances? And how does this disorganization of memory affect traumatized individuals?
Psychology, Cognitive
Positive Psychology & Psychoneuroimmunology
Research is just tapping into how social behavior and inflammatory processes influence one another. In this project, we will dive into this new cutting-edge area of research at the cross between social psychology, psychoneuroimmunology and positive psychology to understand how inflammation can shape our emotions and social relationships.
Social, Psychology, Statistics
