Bring Research to Life: molab Notebook Competition #2

alphaXiv x marimo

We’re challenging you to do what alphaXiv and marimo both believe in: turn research results into something tangible, reproducible, and interactive — that is, a marimo notebook.

In this second molab Notebook Competition, you’ll participate in AI research by implementing a result in a marimo notebook. Pick from a curated selection of papers on alphaXiv, or any alphaXiv paper that’s caught your eye, and build a marimo notebook that brings its core idea to life. Any paper on alphaXiv is fair game.

We don’t expect you to fully reproduce your selected paper’s results, nor do we expect you to reimplement its entire methodology. Instead, we encourage you to hone in on a key contribution, and bring that contribution to life with code, UI elements, and explanatory text. Bonus points if you add your own spin on the paper’s method, such as an extension or variant of the algorithm, or applying it to different datasets. Others who work through your notebook should walk away with an intuitive understanding of the paper’s core contribution, and an understanding of how to implement and apply it themselves.

For an example of the kind of submission we’re looking for, check out the submissions from our previous notebook competition winners. To learn what is possible with marimo, see our gallery.

Submit your notebooks as a molab link. And this time, we’re delivering on the upgrade we promised: this competition runs on GPUs. Transformers, diffusion models, larger-scale training, inference, and more — everything that was out of scope last time is now fair game. The sky’s the limit (well, the GPU is).

Who you are

Engineers, students, and researchers who are interested in AI research. Both the research-curious and veteran researchers are welcome.

How to enter

1. Pick from a curated selection of papers on alphaXiv.
2. Build a marimo notebook that presents the core idea.
3. Submit it by sending us the molab link and a video explainer through the form below.

Submissions: Up to 3 per person, solo or as part of a group. You’re free to mix groups across submissions.

Group entries are welcome. If a group wins the top prize, the Framework laptop value can be split equally as Claude Max Pro subscriptions instead.

Judging criteria

Submissions are reviewed by a panel from the marimo team. The jury favors:

• Notebooks that provide an intuitive understanding of the research result, through code, UI elements, and text
• Notebooks that implement custom extensions that either improve the performance of the original paper or otherwise provide insight into the topic at hand

The full rubric is linked here for your reference.

Prizes

You’ll walk away as one of the world’s few experts on the research topic you pick. We’re also offering $2.5K+ in prizes.

1. 🥇 1st place: Framework Laptop 13, a marimo swag bag, + shoutouts on alphaXiv & marimo socials
2. 🥈 2nd place: Claude Max Pro for 3 months, a marimo swag bag, + shoutouts on alphaXiv & marimo socials
3. 🥉 3rd place: Claude Max 5x for 3 months, a marimo swag bag, + shoutouts on alphaXiv & marimo socials

Submit

Ready to build? Submit your molab notebook before June 28, 11:59 PM PST.

Submit here!

Stay in the loop

Follow along for discussions, submission highlights, and winner announcements:

• X/Twitter: marimo | alphaXiv
• LinkedIn: marimo | alphaXiv
• Discord: #molab-competition on Discord
• Instagram: marimo

Winners event