A practical thing for a 'project' :
Make something visible (like a 3D interface so that the situation the AI will handle and its actions resulting from the decisions it makes are obvious to a viewer.
Something like an ordinary street corner with various common props and events which happen and a number of different reactions the AI driven NPC will be able to take.
Usually the more complex AI deals with interactions not with passive objects (reactions) , but with the possible actions (future prediction) of other NPCs