Approved Add-ons and Extensions

Optional add-ons allow a team to pursue an idea beyond the core requirements without creating another checkpoint or an alternate path around required work. Examples include a polynomial-time special case, a stronger exact method, an additional heuristic, adversarial-instance generation, parameter-sensitivity analysis, a reduction experiment, a larger benchmark universe, or parallel benchmark execution.

A team that wants to pursue an add-on should propose it no later than the Checkpoint 3 submission. The proposal should identify what will be built or investigated, how success will be evaluated, and how the work complements the required project. The instructor must approve the scope before the team treats it as part of the project plan.

Approved add-ons should appear naturally in the Checkpoint 4 experiments and, when they produce a meaningful result, in the final report or presentation. They do not replace core checkpoint requirements. Unless the instructor explicitly designates an add-on as extra credit, add-on work is evaluated within the existing Checkpoint 4 and final-project criteria and does not increase the project beyond its published 100 points.

For three-person teams, the required second heuristic is part of the core project and is not an add-on.