Campaign kit · Real-Time Vision Challenge
Everything you need to put this in front of people
Application page copy, LinkedIn posts, the masterclass, society outreach and WhatsApp copy, written against your house style, pulled from three years of the sent folder. Every block copies to the clipboard.
01
Draft posters
A tentative list before print, nothing locked:
- QR code and short link (surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk)
- Deadline line: 20 places · teams of two · closes 22 Oct
- Prize line as one piece on the A poster
- Society logos on the bottom strip (planned)
- Time on the B poster once confirmed
- Swap "(HARDWARE)" for the confirmed unit after the 19th
- Portrait crop for the A1 freshers print
- Venue naming matched across poster, page and joining instructions
02
Application page copy
[HEADLINE HARDWARE] is a placeholder throughout, swap in the confirmed unit once NVIDIA answers on the 19th. Nothing goes out before then.
This runs on the Oxbridge AIx platform, where the application form sits. Structured the way your event pages run: title, an opening paragraph that says who they would be working with, then the detail. The six-line logistics footer is your most consistent house pattern and carries through here with the hackathon variant of the emoji set.
Page title
Real-Time Vision Challenge with XRlabs - NVIDIA x Playground
Description
Spend a Sunday building real-time AI perception for live surgery, inside the company actually doing it. No medical background required! XRlabs builds computer vision for live operations, under some of the hardest latency and reliability constraints in the industry. They are backed by Playground Global and Oxford Seed Fund, and founded by Ali Haddad, a practising neurosurgeon who left the operating theatre to fix it. For one day, their data, their stack and their engineering team are yours. An honest look at what real-time vision costs when a surgeon is waiting. Not a demo dataset, not a toy problem. 🤖 THE CHALLENGE Train and deploy a model that tells surgical instruments apart in live video, running on NVIDIA hardware provided on the day. Teams of two, formed when you arrive. The task is revealed at 11:20, but you know now what you are training for. Warm up beforehand on any open dataset if you like, and bring it with you. A head start on your tooling is fair game and expected. DETAILS 🔗 Apply: surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk 📅 Sunday 25th October ⏰ 11:00am to 7:00pm 📍 XRlabs, London Institute for Healthcare Engineering, London 🏆 Prizes: [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £1,000 / £600 / £400, and compute credits for every finalist 🍕 Brunch, pizza, snacks and drinks on us all day 👥 WHO SHOULD APPLY Computer vision enthusiasts, developers, researchers and more. Devs, builders, students and researchers across Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and beyond. Also, anyone already working at a lab or a startup. Come alone or as a team, invite friends! ✍️ HOW TO APPLY Five minutes. A GitHub or Scholar profile, and one thing you have built, linked or shown. No qualifying task, no homework. We review applications as they arrive and send invitations continuously, so apply early and you will hear back within days. Screening is done by partners XRlabs and Oxbridge AIx. Only 20 places! Applications close Thursday 22nd October. A super exclusive computer vision hackathon in Europe, designed for those who want to participate in the future of surgery! 🎒 WHAT TO BRING Your laptop Chargers Curious mind, no prior surgical knowledge required Compute and accelerated hardware are provided. You keep the IP in everything you build. Brought to you by XRlabs, NVIDIA, Playground and Oxbridge AIx, in partnership with Oxford Computing Society, AI for Good, Oxford Entrepreneurs, Ox Founders, OxVC, CAMEntrepreneurs, Imperial Entrepreneurs and Imperial AI Society. 🚀 Questions? Email team@oxbridgeaix.uk You've got this and We've Got Your Back!
Application questions
1. GitHub, GitLab or Google Scholar link (required) 2. LinkedIn 3. Show us one thing you have built, link or short description (required) 4. What are you working on at the moment? (one line) 5. University or company, and course or role 6. Can you be in London 10:30am-7:00pm on Sunday 25th October? (required) 7. Any dietary requirements? 8. How did you hear about this?
Sequence
- Application page and poster first; both to Ali for approval before anything goes public.
- Unpublished until the venue and NVIDIA are both confirmed.
- XRlabs team gets the applicant view from day one, so they see the pool building rather than a shortlist at the end.
03LinkedIn
Cadence: one LinkedIn post a week, the masterclass included, plus two pushes a week via the newsletter and our channels. Every link tracked per channel via Bitly.
Post 1, launch, Monday 21 September
Launch post
🤖 REAL-TIME VISION CHALLENGE: BUILD AI PERCEPTION FOR LIVE SURGERY 🤖 We're thrilled to announce our first hackathon with @XRlabs, backed by @Playground Global and Oxford Seed Fund, with hardware and compute from @NVIDIA! 🚀 Operating theatres still run on technology that has barely changed in twenty years. XRlabs is fixing that, and the hardest problems they have are computer vision problems. On Sunday 25th October, they are opening their London office to twenty computer vision engineers for one day. Their data. Their stack. Five of their engineers building alongside you. 💎 What's on the table: - 🏆 [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000 in prizes - 👥 20 places only, teams of two - 💻 NVIDIA hardware and compute on the day - 💼 XRlabs are hiring Computer Vision Scientists in London 🧠 And the important bit: no medical background is required. This is a computer vision problem that happens to sit in an operating theatre. If you can train a model, you can enter. Applications take five minutes, a GitHub or Scholar profile and one thing you have built. No qualifying task. We review as they come in, so early applicants hear back within days. 🎯 To computer vision people: this is a rare chance to work on a real clinical stack with the team that built it. Apply below. 📢 To everyone else: please share this with the one person you just thought of. Huge thanks to @Ali Haddad for opening his doors, and to @Lilly Bussmann at Oxford Science Enterprises for bringing us together. 🔗 Apply: surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk 📅 Applications close Thursday 22nd October You've Got This and We've Got Your Back! 💪 #ComputerVision #AI #MedTech #Hackathon #SurgicalAI #OxfordStartups #CambridgeStartups #Imperial #NVIDIA #OxbridgeAIx #Hiring #DeepLearning
Post 2, momentum, w/c 28 September
Momentum post
🤖 Invitations for the Real-Time Vision Challenge are already going out. One Sunday inside @XRlabs, building real-time AI perception for live surgery on their data and @NVIDIA hardware, with @Playground Global in the room. We review applications as they arrive and confirm places on a rolling basis, so the room is filling before the deadline ever matters. 🏆 Hardware + £2,000 in prizes 👥 Only 20 places, teams of two 🧠 No medical background required 📅 Sunday 25th October, London 🚨 Applications close 22nd October Five minutes to apply: a GitHub or Scholar profile and one thing you have built. 🔗 surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk You've Got This and We've Got Your Back! #ComputerVision #AI #MedTech #Hackathon #SurgicalAI
Post 3, final push, Monday 19 October
Final push
🚨 FINAL DAYS: Real-Time Vision Challenge applications close Thursday 🚨 Sunday 25th October. XRlabs' London office. Twenty computer vision engineers, real surgical data, NVIDIA hardware in the room, and an [HEADLINE HARDWARE] for whoever does it best. Five minutes to apply. A GitHub or Scholar profile and one thing you have built. No qualifying task, no medical background needed. We have a handful of places left and we're reviewing as they arrive. 🔗 Apply: surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk 📅 Closes Thursday 22nd October If you've been meaning to do this, now is the moment. 👇 You've got this and We've Got Your Back! #ComputerVision #AI #Hackathon #MedTech #SurgicalAI
Post 4, for Ali or the XRlabs page: a suggestion. Please share what you think is best and we'll repost
Founder voice
When I moved from the operating theatre into building XRlabs, what struck me hardest was how archaic surgical technology still is. Navigation hasn't meaningfully changed in twenty years. We're looking at five different screens and calling it state of the art. We've spent two years building real-time perception for live surgery. Almost every hard problem we have turns out to be a computer vision problem, and there are very few people in the UK and Europe working on them. So we're opening our doors. On Sunday 25th October, twenty computer vision engineers spend a day in our London office, on our data, on our stack, with five of my engineers building alongside them. Not a demo. The thing we are actually shipping. We are hiring Computer Vision Scientists. If you are one, come and show us what you can do, and let us show you what the problem really looks like. No medical background required. We will teach you the surgery. Run with @Oxbridge AIx, with hardware from @NVIDIA and @Playground Global in the room. 🔗 Apply: surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk 📅 Applications close 22nd October
Amplification
We'll send XRlabs, NVIDIA and Playground the post timings in advance so we can coordinate amplification, including Google Calendar invites for each posting slot. Reshares and comments in the first hour are where most of the reach comes from.
04WhatsApp
Launch
🤖 A rare one for the computer vision peeps and those who want to be at the forefront of surgery! Real-Time Vision Challenge with XRlabs, Sunday 25th October, London. A day inside XRlabs building real-time AI for live surgery, on their data, on NVIDIA hardware, with five of their engineers alongside you. Backed by Playground. 20 places only. 🏆 [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000 👥 Teams of two, formed on the day 🧠 No medical background needed 💼 They're hiring Computer Vision Scientists ✍️ 5 minutes to apply, we review as they come in 🚨 Closes Thursday 22nd October 🔗 surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk Forward this to the one person you just thought of!
Final call
⏳ Applications for the Real-Time Vision Challenge close Thursday! Sunday 25th Oct, XRlabs London. [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000. 20 places, teams of two, no medical background needed. 5 minutes to apply 👉 surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk
05
Masterclass with Ali, Monday 19 October
Ali speaks at an Oxbridge AIx Masterclass six days before the hackathon. It is the single biggest push in the campaign, it lands three days before applications close, and it costs him ninety minutes.
Why it earns its place here
People who spend an hour listening to Ali talk about a problem he actually cares about arrive at the hackathon already sold, on him, on the company, and on the work. It converts curiosity into applications in the final week, exactly when the last seats need filling.
It also reaches further than the event can, and it gives people more than a hackathon to talk about: a vision to follow and remember, something to share. Twenty people get into the room on the 25th; several hundred see the masterclass live or in the library afterwards.
The format, unchanged from every other Monday
- Monday 19th October, 17:00 to 18:30 UK, online via Microsoft Teams.
- 30 to 40 minutes from Ali, then questions for the rest.
- Recorded and published to the platform, where the library already holds 40+ sessions.
- Audience: early-stage AI founders, builders and researchers across Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial.
- Q&A convention: people introduce themselves and their project first.
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 17:00 | People arrive. Quick tech and screen check. Ali joins at 5 |
| 17:05 | Ali, 30 to 40 minutes. Our moderator introduces him. Slides optional |
| 17:45 | Q&A, attendees introduce themselves first, which is how we build trust in the room |
| 18:20 | The hackathon, we close with the pitch and the link |
| 18:30 | Close. Recording goes into the Masterclass Library |
That last ten minutes is ours and it is deliberate. Ali does not have to sell the hackathon; we do it for him, to a room that has just spent an hour deciding they like him.
Total commitment is 60 to 90 minutes and the house style is casual and conversational, not a lecture. Our Speaker Brief puts it well: be yourself, authenticity beats polish, share the failures too, use your own project as the case study, and the Q&A is where the magic happens.
Topic is yours, the title format is ours
We've had over 1,300 people sign up for these sessions so far, and it would be great for us to showcase you as part of the Oxbridge AIx community.
What works in this series is a specific, slightly contrarian claim rather than a survey. The house format:
Masterclass: [Punchy claim or question] with Ali Haddad - XRlabs
Directions that would land, purely as prompts: why the same operation by five surgeons gives five outcomes and why that is a vision problem · what "real time" costs when a surgeon is waiting · leaving a clinical career to build · training a foundation model on data nobody else can reach. An Ask Me Anything works just as well and needs no preparation; we ran exactly that with David Hanson.
What we need from you
| By | What | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 26 Sep | Topic and title | Or just a direction, and we draft the title and send it back to you |
| Fri 26 Sep | Two or three sentences | What people take away. We write the listing from this |
| Fri 26 Sep | Headshot and LinkedIn | Your LinkedIn photo is fine |
| Mon 19 Oct | Ninety minutes | 16:50 for a mic check. That is the whole commitment |
The sooner the better, because it buys us promotion time. How it works: we agree the Monday and book you in. You send the topic, a short summary, your LinkedIn and a headshot. We build the event page and poster and send both for your approval, then promote across every channel. You register to receive the Teams link, and our slide template is there if you want it. On the day you join at 5pm and we start at 5:05. The recording goes into the Masterclass Library afterwards.
Every mention carries the hackathon link alongside it, so the two promote each other for three weeks.
Draft copy
Luma title
Masterclass: [Title] with Ali Haddad - XRlabs
Luma description
Ali Haddad left neurosurgery to fix the operating theatre. This Monday he joins us to talk about what he found there, and what he is building instead. Ali trained as a neurosurgeon before founding XRlabs, which builds real-time AI perception for live surgery under some of the hardest latency constraints in the industry. The company is backed by Playground Global and Oxford Seed Fund. An honest look at what real-time computer vision costs when a surgeon is waiting, and why almost every hard problem in surgical AI turns out to be a vision problem. 🔗 Register: [MASTERCLASS LINK] 📅 Monday 19th October ⏰ 5:00 to 6:30 PM UK Time 💻 Online via Microsoft Teams 🎤 For Q&A, please introduce yourself and your project 📹 This session will be recorded and shared on the Oxbridge AIx Platform: https://bit.ly/m/Masterclasses-OxBAIx 🤖 AND ONE MORE THING Ali is opening the XRlabs office to twenty computer vision engineers on Sunday 25th October for the Real-Time Vision Challenge, [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000 in prizes, NVIDIA hardware, and they're hiring. No medical background required. Applications close Thursday 22nd October, so this session is your last chance to hear from him before you decide. 🔗 Apply: surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk You've got this and We've Got Your Back!
LinkedIn, masterclass announcement, w/c 6 Oct
🎓 MASTERCLASS: [Title] with Ali Haddad 🎓 Some people talk about AI in healthcare. Ali Haddad trained as a neurosurgeon, walked into the operating theatre, found technology that hadn't meaningfully moved in twenty years, and left to rebuild it. He founded @XRlabs to bring real-time AI perception into live surgery. Backed by @Playground Global and Oxford Seed Fund. On Monday 19th October he joins us to talk about what he is building and what he has learned. 📅 Monday 19th October ⏰ 5:00-6:30 PM UK 💻 Online via Microsoft Teams 🔗 Register: [MASTERCLASS LINK] Free, recorded, and open to everyone across Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial. 🤖 And if you do computer vision, Ali is opening his London office to twenty engineers on Sunday 25th October for the Real-Time Vision Challenge. [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000 in prizes, NVIDIA hardware, and XRlabs are hiring. No medical background required. Applications close 22nd October. 🔗 Apply: surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk You've Got This and We've Got Your Back! #Masterclass #ComputerVision #AI #MedTech #SurgicalAI #OxbridgeAIx
LinkedIn, day of, Monday 19 Oct
⏰ TODAY at 5PM: Masterclass with Ali Haddad, founder of XRlabs. A neurosurgeon who left the operating theatre to rebuild it with real-time computer vision. Backed by Playground Global. An honest look at what "real time" actually costs when a surgeon is waiting. 🔗 Register: [MASTERCLASS LINK] ⏰ 5:00-6:30 PM UK · Online via Teams And applications for his hackathon close Thursday. 20 places, [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000, no medical background needed. 👇
WhatsApp, masterclass
🎓 Next Monday's Masterclass is a good one. Ali Haddad, neurosurgeon turned founder, on building real-time AI perception for live surgery at XRlabs. Backed by Playground Global. 📅 Monday 19th October ⏰ 5:00-6:30 PM UK 💻 Online via Teams 🔗 [MASTERCLASS LINK] Free and recorded as always. 🤖 And his hackathon is the Sunday after: 20 places, [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000, no medical background needed. Applications close Thursday 22nd 👉 surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk
WhatsApp, day of
⏰ Today at 5PM: Masterclass with Ali Haddad of XRlabs, on real-time AI for live surgery. 🔗 [MASTERCLASS LINK] Hackathon applications close Thursday 👉 surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk
Newsletter block, Monday 12 Oct, "one week to go"
🎓 Masterclass: [Title] with Ali Haddad - XRlabs Hi everyone! Our Masterclass series continues next Monday with a big one: real-time AI inside live surgery. Ali Haddad trained as a neurosurgeon before founding XRlabs, which builds computer vision perception that has to work in a live operation, with a surgeon waiting. He joins us to talk about what that actually costs, and what he found when he walked into an operating theatre running on twenty-year-old technology. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Why physician variability is one of the biggest causes of poor surgical outcomes, and why it is a computer vision problem - What "real time" means when there is a hard per-frame budget and a patient on the table - Where the technology falls short today - What it takes to build a foundation model on data nobody else can reach ABOUT ALI Ali Haddad is Founder and CEO of XRlabs, building real-time AI perception for live surgery. He trained in neurosurgery in London after studying at Imperial and Oxford, and founded the Good Sam app before XRlabs. The company has raised £10m, backed by Playground Global and Oxford Seed Fund. 🔗 Register: [MASTERCLASS LINK] 📅 Monday 19th October ⏰ 5:00-6:30 PM UK Time 💻 Online via Microsoft Teams 🎤 For Q&A, please introduce yourself and your project. 📹 This session will be recorded and shared on the Oxbridge AIx Platform: https://bit.ly/m/Masterclasses-OxBAIx 🤖 Also, Ali's Real-Time Vision Challenge is on Sunday 25th October at the XRlabs office. 20 places, teams of two, [HEADLINE HARDWARE] + £2,000 in prizes, and they're hiring Computer Vision Scientists. No medical background required. Applications close Thursday 22nd October. 🔗 Apply: surgicalxr.oxbridgeaix.uk
Why this sequencing works
Applications close on the Thursday, three days after the masterclass. That turns the session into the final deadline driver rather than a pleasant thing that happened in the same month, anyone who watches Ali on the Monday and wants in has 72 hours and a live link.
06
Publishing schedule
| When | Channel | What |
|---|---|---|
| Prior to 21 Sep | Finalise (approved) | Application page and poster approved by Ali. Unpublished until NVIDIA confirms |
| Mon 21 Sep | Landing page + platform | Live. Applications open on the Oxbridge AIx platform |
| Mon 21 Sep | Post 1. Post timings and coordination to XRlabs, NVIDIA and Playground the week before, with calendar invites | |
| Tue 22 Sep | WhatsApp + email | Launch message to the community |
| w/c 22 Sep | Societies | All eight committees share it to their channels |
| w/c 22 Sep | Departments | Maths, physics, engineering, stats, life sciences, materials |
| w/c 29 Sep | Careers services | Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial |
| Early Oct | Freshers' Week | Poster on the shared stall. QR code on everything |
| Mon 5 Oct | Newsletter | Lead item. Masterclass announced alongside |
| w/c 6 Oct | Masterclass announcement post; we broadcast it via Luma | |
| w/c 28 Sep | Post 2, momentum | |
| Ongoing | Every event | Mentioned from the front of the room until the 25th |
| Mon 12 Oct | Newsletter | Masterclass "one week to go" block |
| Mon 19 Oct | Masterclass, 17:00 | Day-of posts. We close the session on the hackathon |
| Mon 19 Oct | LinkedIn + WhatsApp | Post 3, final push |
| Tue 20 Oct | Recording to everyone who registered but missed it, with the link | |
| Thu 22 Oct | Applications close | |
| Sat 24 Oct | Final info, 20:00, and again at 22:00 for late confirmations | |
| Tue 27 Oct | Email + LinkedIn | Thank you to everyone who applied, plus the recap post |
| Throughout | Bitly | Every channel gets its own tracked link, so we know where applicants come from |