Computational Research Ideas

Below are project topic and research question ideas. These have been checked and should allow for original research opportunities - that is, you could make actual discoveries and novel findings for each of these projects! And  you should not need access to a professional laboratory, but rather can write code and build your own simulations, or use professional simulation software available online, in your school lab or even in your own house on your own computer. There may even be some purely mathematical/theoretical project ideas that are borne, for those with mathematical interests.

It is important to realize that

this type of research requires computer programming 

knowledge and skills. 

One of the most popular languages presently for data collection and analysis is Python, and is the language many graduate students in research areas recommend learning; there are countless tutorials, YouTube videos, and pieces of information online for Python. The most popular free, online course to learn Python (as well as some other languages) is through Codecademy, although there are many other sources and tutorials online. If you are new to programming, open an account and start a self-paced course in Python!

For some background information about what 'math modeling' and computational work have to do with, check out a post with resources to get a better understanding of some of this work.

To see college-level work in multi-dimensional computational modeling and programming, check out this book on Constraint Theory, used by aerospace and systems engineers. 

Just click on a topic of interest, and it will take you to a separate post about that specific topic. You will find background information, relevant links to articles, vocabulary, data accessibility methods, videos, and so on. Hopefully you will find enough information to actually be able to get started and do the project!

Computational/Theoretical Topics and Research Questions:

Astrophysics/Astronomy

• If you can program and want to write your own simulation, here are some examples of what some high school students have been able to do:    

          - Effect of Rogue Star on a Binary System

          - Planet Habitability in a Binary Star System (same mass stars)

          - Planet Habitability in a Binary System (including different star masses, luminosities)

          - Estimation of Fatal Earth Perturbation from Rogue Stars

          - Influence of Galactic Location on Evolution of Planets in Wide Binary Star Systems

          - Gravitational Lensing and Focusing Near Black Holes 

• Even if a student does not know a programming language and how to code, AI now becomes a powerful tool to expand computational research in high schools. One can use something like ChatGPT to write Python code for a particular problem, and then you can ask the AI to give instructions for running the code; students can study and use the code to begin learning how to code, and make the initial AI version their own. A good astronomy research question could be to simulate binary star systems and check to see if stable planetary orbits are possible. Or can planets orbit the binary orbital plane perpendicular to the plane of the planets? 

• Anything with gravity! Begin with varying the 1/r^2 law in Newton's law of gravity, such as with 1/r^2.1 or 1/r^1.9, to see when stable orbits are still possible as opposed to becoming unstable; or find the differences and perturbations that arise in orbital motions with small changes in the power law (such as differences between periods, velocities, etc.).  Or what about the notion some theories use, where the gravitational constant, G, varies as a function of mass-energy density? What happens if you use some function for G(r)? How would that affect orbits and other motions or scenarios in space, when objects move away from or toward each other?

• An interesting idea: can a tidally locked planet have regions of inhabitability? One side would be constantly heated, the other side constantly in darkness, but can one simulate a climate on this planet and see if there are regions where temperatures would be moderate and allow for liquid water. Find the moderate zones as you circle the planet. 

• For computational work, the AMUSE package can be downloaded for free on a Mac or Linux machine. AMUSE is a depository of Python code that can be used to do all sorts of calculations for stellar dynamics, hydrodynamics, stellar evolution, radiative transfer, and so on. Very useful stuff that the pros use. For work with Python, one software platform you may consider downloading Canopy (there is a free education version), as well as Anaconda. 

• For tutorials showing how to use Rebound for N-body simulations in astrophysics, check out both text and video tutorials at tinyurl.com/learnRebound. This can be used to look at solar systems, multi-star systems (binary, trinary, etc.), star clusters, galaxies, and so on. 

• The most advanced and accurate simulations for star formation come from the STARFORGE platform. For this one may need to go through a university group to gain access to the software and computing platform needed to run it. 

• Keep in mind that despite our observations of the solar system, which is our immediate neighborhood, for millennia, we still do not have the firmest understanding about how it works or what all is even in it! Statistical evidence for the existence of Planet 9, well past the orbit of Neptune and theorized to exist for decades, suggests it does and must exist in order to explain small perturbations in the orbits of outer planets. This is the type of thing that can be and is explored by all types of computational models and predictions! 

Climate Science

• A wonderful way to learn about climate science modeling is to use a professional level simulation that is set up in a user friendly manner for students to run their own models. Welcome to EdGCM, the Educational Global Climate Model site at Columbia University. This can be run on desktop and laptop computers, either Mac or Windows operating systems, and allows students and teachers to create and run their own simulations, collect and analyze the data, and draw conclusions about what their parameter space yielded. It is a wonderful way to learn about how computational research works, and do some actual modeling research. See an example of what a student can do! 

• For those who want to learn some of the fundamental science used to research climate change, a good example of a course is from Penn State. This is an understanding climate science course, with notes accessible online.

Complex Systems

• If you can program and want to write your own simulation, here are some examples of what some high school students have been able to do: 

          - Synchronization of Chaotic Oscillators
          - Predictive Fractal Modeling of Tree Adaptation 


Computer Science

•  If you can program and want to write your own simulation, here are some examples of what some high school students have been able to do: 

          - Cellular Automata in Cryptosystems (encryption)

          - Implementing Dynamic Mutation Rates in Genetic Programs

Network Theory

• If you can program and want to write your own simulation, here are some examples of what some high school students have been able to do: 

         - Understanding Evolved Strategies for System-Wide Coordination in Noisy Environments

         - System-wide Cooperation and the Selective Team Assembly Mechanism