GPUs are becoming more powerful continually. You can now add program for the vertex steps. You can also add programs for the per fragment stage. This ability has been used to improve and diversify real-time 3D graphics, and also opened a field called GPGP (General Purpose Gpu Programming). In GPGP, people are creating fluid simulators, solving linear systems of equations, and several other things.

So, in this assignment, you choose how you wish to harness this newfound power! You could choose any of the following or suggest something else:

Shadow volumes: Okay, not quite GPU Programming, but it’s cool
Shadow mapping: GPU programming makes this even faster.
Phong shading
Toon shading
Bump mapping
Reflection/Environment maps
Deforming in the vertex program
GPGP stuff like a particle simulator, etc

As far as points go, it depends on your quality of output and the complexity you handle. Discuss with me what you plan to do and we can discuss point tallies.