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10 months ago

Meet the Open AI Open Model Hackathon Judges

This hackathon features judges from our sponsors Hugging Face, NVIDIA, Ollama and vLLM and we’d love to introduce them to you, plus you get to hear from some of them on why they’re excited about seeing YOUR PROJECTS in this hackathon! 

Dmitry Pimenov - OpenAI - Most excited to see how you leverage the unique characteristics of an open model from OpenAI: running inference on-device, doing deep model customization. Let your hacker creativity run wild!

Dominik Kundel - OpenAI - I’m most excited to see people really unlock the agentic capabilities of gpt-oss. The models are great at function calling and have built-in knowledge of using web browsing and python tools to improve their actions. Can’t wait to see how having such an agentic model be able to run on devices can really unlock new use cases.

Vaibhav Srivastav - Hugging Face - As you build, I encourage you to think beyond the deadline. A great hackathon project isn't just an ending, but the beginning of a new product, new research, or a new possibility. I'm excited to see the projects that have the vision and potential to live on and make an impact long after the hackathon is over. 

Parth Sareen - Ollama - Looking forward to seeing your craziest hardware invention and integrating it with gpt-oss. I would love to see a unique application of the model in a way people typically wouldn’t consider.

Tanay Varshney - NVIDIA - "This hackathon is a perfect reflection of the open-source spirit in action. It’s a thrill to see a global community of developers grab these models and start building. I'm looking forward to seeing not just the final projects, but the collaboration and shared learning that defines the open model ecosystem."

Jay Rodge - NVIDIA - I'm excited to see how participants push the boundaries of open models like, especially in ways that blend technical depth with real-world impact. Whether it's a fine-tuned expert system or a local agent running offline, I'm looking for projects that turn innovation into something tangible and transformative.

Annie Surla - NVIDIA - The best ideas don’t just impress—they solve real problems, inspire new approaches, and make open models more useful for everyone. I’m interested to see projects that turn technical brilliance into something practical and impactful. 

Ekaterina Sirazitdinova - NVIDIA - More than just final projects, this hackathon is about exploring the strengths of open models, creating thoughtful designs, imagining bold impacts, and sharing novel ideas with the community.

Chris Alexiuk - NVIDIA - Even further than just open-source, I’m interested in what people can build that runs *locally*! Push the limits of the smaller models to see what systems you can pull off!

Anusha Pant - NVIDIA - I’m excited to see the ingenuity and innovation that teams will bring to every category in this hackathon. Particularly, in the 'For Humanity' category, I’m looking for projects that use open-source AI to tackle real-world challenges and create meaningful, lasting impact.

Simon Mo - vLLM - “Best Unexpected Use”  category exists to capture what you can do with gpt-oss beyond the suggested use cases such as browsing and code interpreters. We are excited to see how you harness the power of open source and show the world that you can do with it! 

Roger Wang - vLLM - What excites me most about this hackathon is seeing people take these models and turn them into tools that actually solve problems. Open-source works best when ideas get shared, tested, and refined together—and that’s exactly what’s happening here. I’m looking forward to the practical systems and collaborations that come out of it.

 

Don’t forget: the judges will be reviewing projects on the following judging criteria:

  • Application of gpt-oss - Does the project apply the open models in an effective way, fitting with the categories? Can other models do the same thing, or does the project showcase the strengths of the models uniquely?
  • Design - Is the user experience and design of the project well thought-out, including safety of the user? Is there a balanced blend of frontend and backend?
  • Potential Impact - How big of an impact could the project have for its intended audience? How big of an impact could it have beyond the target community and the rest of the world?
  • Novelty of the Idea - How creative and unique is the project? Does the concept exist already? If so, how much does the project improve on it?


This glimpse into the judges’ minds might mean a better score for your project. Interested to know more about what judges might be thinking? Check out Devpost’s interview article of some other recent judges.

Best of luck!