The software platform for the neuroevolution book also supports doing a small project on your own. Such projects may be theoretical, or involve developing and evaluating a new method; however most often they would apply neuroevolution to a particular problem, such as a game, simulator, or decision-making domain. Projects are entirely optional (earning a small amount of extra credit). They are intended as a starting point for students who may want to do research in neuroevolution later.
If you are interested in doing a project, talk to Risto ahead of time. You need to turn in a short proposal (plain text paragraph in email) before you begin, describe it briefly in class during the last week of classes, and turn in a report (a pdf document in email describing the motivation, approach, results, and conclusions, and ideas for continuing/finishing/future work) by the end of the semester (see the class schedule for the exact dates.