Challenges & Prizes.
One challenge: make a robot do something cool. Build a harness and train a skill that work together to solve a problem. We judge ambition, accuracy, consistency — and how seamlessly the harness and the actions fit together.
No challenge outweighs another — every team and every embodiment competes together. Three winners could come from one challenge or spread across all three.
We provide puzzles: brain teasers, building blocks, kids' musical instruments. Make the robot solve them, consistently. Expect a mix of vision models and VLAs — the interesting work is the code that figures out what the task is and directs the model. Bring your own puzzle if you'd like.
Recycling. Cans, paper, clean debris — all safe to handle. Build the best possible robot for taking a pile of recycling and doing something productive with it: sort it, crush it, separate it from trash. Anything that genuinely contributes counts.
Your robot, your idea. These vary widely — if you're not sure it qualifies, ask a judge. Be clever.
1st place
$3,000 cash + $3,000 Modal compute
2nd place
$2,000 cash + $2,000 Modal compute
3rd place
$1,000 cash + $1,000 Modal compute