International Machine Learning Olympiad (IMLO)

The International Machine Learning Olympiad (IMLO) is a written competition for high school and undergraduate students anywhere in the world. Instead of solving timed problems, you spend the season on one original machine learning project and write it up as a report. The strongest report wins $10,000 in Anthropic API credits. Your project should be new, or substantially extended, during the season. Don't worry if your results are inconclusive: the organisers say failed research directions are valuable and will be treated as such. AI tools are allowed as long as you say how you used them. Judges grade your report, and your code (a Python .zip up to 150 MB) is used to verify the work. Entry costs $25 per participant, which pays the review committee of ML professionals and researchers. Registration closes November 20, 2026 at 11:59 pm CST, submissions open September 1, and the submission deadline is December 6, 2026 (11:59 pm AoE). Finalists are announced January 18, 2027 and the winner on February 8, 2027. Past medalists received $6,000 and $4,000 in credits and published at workshops such as ICML and ACL. Next step: pick a project idea, then register on the IMLO site before November 20.