Submission & Strategy Guide
Timeline at a Glance
Jan 13 ─────────────────────── Feb 24 ──────────── Mar 17-24
START DEADLINE 11:59 PM UTC RESULTS
◄────── Build & Iterate ──────►
⏰ Days remaining as of Feb 15, 2026: ~9 days
Winning Strategy by Track
Main Track ($75K)
Focus on Execution & Communication (30%) — this is the highest-weighted criterion. A polished video, clean write-up, and well-organized code can make the difference.
Priority order:
- Execution & Communication (30%) — Polish everything
- Effective Use of HAI-DEF (20%) — Show the models are essential, not bolted on
- Product Feasibility (20%) — Prove it can work in production
- Problem Domain (15%) — Tell a compelling story about who benefits
- Impact Potential (15%) — Quantify the impact with clear estimates
Agentic Workflow Prize ($10K)
- Deploy HAI-DEF models as intelligent agents or callable tools
- Demonstrate a significant overhaul of a challenging process
- Show improved efficiency and outcomes via agentic AI
Novel Task Prize ($10K)
- Fine-tune a HAI-DEF model for a task it wasn't originally designed for
- The more creative and useful the adaptation, the better
- Document fine-tuning methodology thoroughly
Edge AI Prize ($5K)
- Run a HAI-DEF model on local/edge hardware (phone, scanner, etc.)
- Focus on model optimization: quantization, distillation, pruning
- Demonstrate real-world field deployment scenarios
Submission Checklist
Required Deliverables
- Kaggle Writeup — 3 pages or less, following the template
- Video demo — 3 minutes or less
- Public code repository — linked in writeup
- Uses at least one HAI-DEF model (e.g., MedGemma)
- Code is reproducible
Bonus Deliverables
- Public interactive live demo app
- Open-weight Hugging Face model tracing to HAI-DEF
Write-up Quality
- Clear project name
- Team members with specialties and roles listed
- Problem statement addresses "Problem Domain" and "Impact Potential" criteria
- Overall solution addresses "Effective Use of HAI-DEF Models" criterion
- Technical details address "Product Feasibility" criterion
- All links (video, code, demo) are working and accessible
Video Quality
- 3 minutes or less
- Demonstrates the application in action
- Explains the problem and solution clearly
- Shows HAI-DEF model integration
- Professional quality (clear audio, good visuals)
Code Quality
- Well-organized repository structure
- Clear README with setup instructions
- Code is commented and readable
- Dependencies are documented (requirements.txt / environment.yml)
- Results are reproducible from the repository
Video Tips (30% of score rides on execution)
- Open with the problem (30 sec) — Who suffers? What's broken?
- Show the solution (90 sec) — Live demo, not just slides
- Explain the tech (30 sec) — Which HAI-DEF model, how it's used
- Quantify impact (15 sec) — Numbers, estimates, or projections
- Close strong (15 sec) — Vision for the future
Technical Approach Suggestions
Application Ideas Aligned to Criteria
| Idea | Models | Special Award Fit |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical note summarizer with agent routing | MedGemma | Agentic Workflow |
| Radiology triage assistant | MedGemma (vision) | Main Track |
| Dermatology screening on mobile | MedGemma (quantized) | Edge AI |
| Pathology slide analysis for rare diseases | MedGemma (fine-tuned) | Novel Task |
| Patient education chatbot | MedGemma | Main Track |
| Lab result interpreter agent pipeline | MedGemma + tools | Agentic Workflow |
| Wound assessment via phone camera | MedGemma (vision, edge) | Edge AI |
Key Technical Considerations
- Model Selection — Choose the right HAI-DEF model variant for your task
- Fine-tuning — Document methodology, hyperparameters, dataset curation
- Evaluation — Include performance metrics and analysis
- Deployment — Describe your app stack and how it would scale
- Privacy — Healthcare data is sensitive; address HIPAA/privacy considerations
- External Data — Must be publicly available and equally accessible to all participants
External Data & Tools Rules
- External data is allowed but must be publicly available at no cost to all participants
- Use of HAI-DEF/MedGemma is subject to HAI-DEF Terms of Use
- Open source code must use an OSI-approved license
- AutoML tools are permitted if properly licensed
- No private code sharing outside your team during the competition
- Public code sharing must be done on Kaggle forums/notebooks
Draft Writeup Workspace
Use docs/writeup_draft.md to iterate on your writeup before submitting on Kaggle:
### Project name
[TODO]
### Your team
[TODO: Name, specialty, role for each member]
### Problem statement
[TODO: Define the problem, who's affected, magnitude, why AI is the right solution]
[TODO: Articulate impact — what changes if this works? How did you estimate impact?]
### Overall solution
[TODO: Which HAI-DEF model(s)? Why are they the right choice?]
[TODO: How does the application use them to their fullest potential?]
### Technical details
[TODO: Architecture diagram / description]
[TODO: Fine-tuning details (if applicable)]
[TODO: Performance metrics and analysis]
[TODO: Deployment stack and challenges]
[TODO: How this works in practice, not just benchmarks]