Norrsken

Challenge 01

Exploring cell intelligence

In collaboration with Hugging Face.

Every cell in our bodies tells a story. A story of how each of us responds to our environment, how it changes under stress, how it resists — or succumbs — to disease.

Tahoe Therapeutics recently released Tahoe-x1, a massive open-source model trained on 266 million cells, capable of predicting how cells change under different biological or chemical conditions. It’s one of the largest public resources ever created for studying how life responds at the cellular level.

The question is: how can we use this model to build tools and insights that accelerate discovery, improve health outcomes, and make cellular intelligence actionable? What new insights, visualizations, or interfaces could help scientists, doctors, or drug developers explore this kind of data more easily?

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Assignment

Build an AI-driven tool, visualization, or application that helps users understand or apply cellular data from Tahoe-x1.

Use precomputed embeddings from Tahoe-x1 to explore how cells respond to different drugs or conditions.
Create interactive maps or dashboards that reveal patterns in cell behavior or disease states.
Find connections between chemical structures and gene responses (e.g., which molecules trigger similar cellular reactions).
Build a “cell interpreter” — a system that explains or summarizes what happens to a cell when exposed to a drug or stress.

Output

A prototype (app, dashboard, AI assistant, or data model) that demonstrates your idea in action and addresses the challenge.
A short video (1–3 minutes) that explains your solution — what problem it addresses, how it works, and the potential impact it could have.

Data sources and tools

Use the document link below to explore models, datasets, and toolkits.

Data sources

Approaches

Challenge 02

Mind matters - AI for mental health

Mental health affects all of us – shaping how we think, create, and connect. Yet mental ill-health remains one of the defining challenges of our time. Conditions such as depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, while access to care remains limited, uneven, and often out of reach for those who need it most.

Closing the gap between mental ill-health and mental well-being is key to addressing the global mental health crisis – and this is where AI can make a difference.

AI is opening new possibilities to understand, detect, and support mental well-being. From analyzing language and behavior to recognize early signs of distress, to helping clinicians personalize treatment, to creating accessible digital companions that provide comfort and guidance – AI can play a vital role in scaling empathy through data and design.

Still, the goal isn’t to replace human connection, but to strengthen it. The challenge is to explore how AI can support people, professionals, and communities – helping us better understand ourselves and each other.

The challenge: How can we use AI to promote mental health through early detection, improved treatment, and more accessible care for everyone?

Assignment

Build an AI-driven prototype or concept that shows how technology can actively support mental well-being. Your solution could:

Deepen understanding: Analyze data, language, or behavioral patterns to uncover new insights about mental health challenges in specific communities, age groups, or environments.
Detect early signs: Identify indicators of stress, burnout, or emotional change using available or simulated data (e.g., journaling text, activity patterns, voice patterns, etc.).
‍Promote empathy and connection: Design interfaces or chat-based experiences that foster self-reflection, peer support, or community care.
Expand access to care: Design digital tools that deliver guidance, screening, or emotional support to make psychological support more available to those who cannot easily access professional help.
Other creative approaches: Explore new, responsible, and human-centered ways to use AI for mental health, whether through storytelling, data visualization, education, or innovative uses of generative tools that inspire awareness and understanding.

Output

A prototype (dashboard, AI assistant, interactive map, or simulation) that shows how AI can help us understand, detect, support, or enhance mental well-being – and how users can act on those insights
A short pitch showing how the solution can be used by researchers, clinicians, policymakers, or the general public.

Data sources and tools

You’re encouraged to explore and identify your own data sources, research, and insights that can help you shape your idea.

Data sources

Health

Exploring cell intelligence

Assignment

Output

Data sources and tools

Approaches

Mind matters - AI for mental health

Assignment

Output

Data sources and tools

Approaches

Jury

Prizes