AMD Open Robotics Hackathon

AMD, Hugging Face, and Data Monsters have announced the AMD Open Robotics Hackathon, a series of in-person competitions designed to turn robotics concepts into functioning demos. The event aims to bring together students, hobbyists, startup founders, and engineers to build creative solutions to real-world problems using edge AI and robotics hardware.

Event Schedule and Locations

The hackathon will be held in two cities across December 2025:

  • Tokyo, Japan: December 5-7, 2025
  • Paris, France: December 12-14, 2025

Competition Structure and Missions

Participants must form teams of up to four people (ages 18+) to complete two specific missions over a three-day period:

  • Mission 1: An instructor-led session focused on exploration and preparation, where teams learn to set up the LeRobot development environment using AMD AI solutions.
  • Mission 2: A freestyle project where teams have two days to develop an innovative solution to a real-world problem using the LeRobot library.

Technical Requirements and Hardware

To compete, teams are recommended to have proficiency in Linux development, Python, containerization, and machine learning with PyTorch (including model training and inference). Experience with ROCm, LeRobot, and embedded development is considered a bonus.

AMD will provide the following hardware to contestants:

  • SO-101 robotics kits
  • Laptops equipped with AMD Ryzen’s AI processors
  • Access to AMD Instinct’s MI300X GPUs via the AMD Developer Cloud

Judging and Prizes

Projects will be judged on a 100-point scale based on creativity, difficulty, ease-of-use, and practicality. To qualify for prizes, teams must complete both missions. Prizes will be awarded to the top seven teams in each city, with the first-place team receiving $10,000.

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