HACKATHON PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT
Conditions of Participation
- By participating in Hackathon: Delivering the Future™ (“Hackathon”), you agree to the conditions stated in this Participation Agreement (“Agreement”). Note that “you” or “your” refers to Hackathon participants (including their team members). “We”, “our” or “us” refer to the United States Postal Service (“Sponsor”) and its affiliates and partners (collectively referred to as “Sponsor”) and San José State University.
What is Hackathon: Delivering the Future?
- The Hackathon is sponsored by the United States Postal Service, and organized by San José State University, which is a campus of the California State University (“SJSU”). The Hackathon aims to bring together developer focused and business focused students to unite rapidly to build a prototype app, website, or a piece of software to solve a business problem or exploit a business opportunity.
- The Hackathon is a two day competition in which participants will be asked to develop innovative solutions. The solutions will be based on a case study developed by Sponsor and SJSU, based on a real life business case.
When is the Hackathon?
- The Hackathon will be held starting
Date: February 8, 2019
Time: 4:00PM
Venue: San José State University
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library (Lower Level)
150 E San Fernando St, San Jose, CA 95112, USA - Registration for the Hackathon is open from November 26, 2018 via the website https://sjsu-hack2018.devpost.com.
- The final judging for the Hackathon and, the prize giving ceremony for the Hackathon will take place on February 9, 2019.
How to Participate
- Participants must be at least 18 years of age and undergraduates or graduate students enrolled at SJSU. Teams must be made up exclusively of students and cannot include organizers, mentors, judges, sponsors, or anyone in any other privileged position at the event.
- This is a team competition. The maximum team size is 4 people. If you do not have a team, we can pair you with another group.
- To participate in the Hackathon, each team must register via SJSU.
- Any incomplete registrations shall be deemed as void.
- Late registrations will not be entertained. Acknowledgement of receipt of the registration will be sent via email.
- The Hackathon theme will be announced as teasers on November 26, 2018 via the event website.
- Teams may begin ideation and building your wireframes and digital mockups for the proposal to be submitted prior to the Hackathon.
- Teams will be selected for the Hackathon (selected on the basis of the proposals submitted prior to the Hackathon), and the list of finalists will be announced on February 9, 2019.
- Teams are required to bring your own PCs (laptops/notebooks), chargers, cables and accessories for the competition. Only original/licensed software shall be used. We will not in any way be responsible for any use of illegal software by you.
- All work on a project should be completed during the Hackathon. Teams should not start working prior to the start of the event.
- Teams can use an idea they had before the event, but it should be relevant to the U.S. Postal Service.
- Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. Hacks do not have to be “innovative”. If somebody wants to work on a common idea they should be allowed to do so and should be judged on the quality of their hack. These days it’s hard to find something that’s fully original and teams might not know an idea has been done before anyway.
- Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code).
- Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.
- Adding new features to existing projects is allowed. Judges will only consider new functionality introduced or new features added during the hackathon in determining the winners. Presenters may not spend too much time describing the platform that they built on or otherwise mislead judges in that regard.
- Teams must stop hacking once the time is up. However, teams are allowed to debug and make small fixes to their programs after time is up, e.g., if during demoing your hack you find a bug that breaks your application and the fix is only a few lines of code, it's okay to fix that. Making large changes or adding new features is not allowed.
- All participants and projects must comply with the SJSU Student Conduct Code and all other SJSU policies governing students (“SJSU Policies”), which are available at http://www.sjsu.edu/studentconduct/policies. SJSU Policies include but are not limited to the Student Conduct Code, CSU Executive Orders 1096 & 1097 (prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation, Sexual Misconduct, Dating and Domestic Violence, and Stalking), and the Academic Integrity Policy.
- Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers’ discretion. Reasons include but are not limited to violating the Competition Rules or SJSU Policies, or other unsporting behavior.
- Teams can gain advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.
Entry Requirements
All Entries must comply with all of the following requirements (“Entry Requirements”):
- Limit one (1) entry per team.
- Entries that exploit bugs in the Sponsor software/systems or violate SJSU Policies will be rejected.
- Entries that attempt to harm the Sponsor or otherwise create an unfair advantage over other entrants will be rejected.
- Entries cannot be in violation of any law, regulation or third party rights.
By submitting an Entry, you warrant and represent:
(a) that it is your (or your team’s) original work;
(b) that it has not been previously published, sold or submitted in any other competition, promotion, or contest;
(c) that to your knowledge, it has not won previous awards; and
(d) that it does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity;
(e) that is was not developed in any substantive form prior to the event, though ideation, research and material gathering are permitted. - Entries must not include information or content that is false, fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, defamatory, threatening, trade libelous, slanderous, libelous, disparaging, unlawfully harassing, profane, obscene, pornographic, hateful, indecent, inappropriate or injurious to any
individual, Sponsor, or any third party. - Teams must make their Entry available free of charge and without any restriction, for testing, evaluation and use by the Sponsor and judges during the competition period. If the Entry includes software that runs on proprietary or third party hardware that is not widely available to the public, including software running on devices or wearable technology other than smartphones, tablets, or desktop computers, Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to require the Team to provide physical access to the hardware upon request.
General Behavior and Conduct
- You may leave and return to the Hackathon venue at any time during the Hackathon. However, by participating in the Hackathon, you agree that you will:
Always behave in a professional manner, and treat all persons participating in the Hackathon with respect and dignity, and comply with all SJSU Policies, including but not limiting to policies relating to unlawful harassment.
Submissions
- The Hackathon requires teams to create an innovative, demonstrative solution that garners the most points at the end of the competition. The winning team will be chosen by our panel of judges. The judges’ decisions are final, binding, and uncontestable. The judging criteria are based on:
(a) Originality / Novelty: We look to inspire innovation in the next generation of students. Is the hack unique? Does it do something entirely novel, or at least take a fresh approach to an old problem? Does it show creativity? This category will be based solely on the idea.
(b) Impact / Usefulness: Does the hack demonstrate potential for widespread impact? Does it address one or more of the challenges identified? This category will be based solely on the idea.
(c) Feasibility / Practicality: We look for new and original ideas, we want hackers to think outside the box, but we also want the ideas to be somewhat practical. Is this project feasible and practical in the next 3-5 years? This category will be based solely on the idea.
(d) Technical Difficulty: Is the hack technically challenging? Is it a simple API mashup or is it a comprehensive effort that leverages advanced architecture, tough algorithms, and various libraries and languages? Does it offer new and creative technology or process innovation?
(e) Polish / Design: Is the hack usable in its current state? Does everything appear to work as intended? Is it mostly bug-free? Does it demonstrate a refined concept that is easy to understand? Is the presentation clear and convincing? - All submissions must meet the following general conditions:
(a) The language used in your submission must be the English Language.
(b) Teams are required to make an oral presentation during the judging of the Hackathon.
(c) The content of your submission must be acceptable for all viewing audiences. Materials that contain text, sound, or images that we (in our sole discretion) regard as vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate for public viewing, or that present Sponsor in negative light, will be automatically disqualified.
(d) While ideation may begin prior to the competition, you agree that you may seek and receive help from your team and Sponsor resources only provided during the Hackathon.
(e) Any submission which is incomplete or indecipherable will be deemed invalid and will be disqualified. Any submission that does not fulfill the conditions set out above will be deemed ineligible and will be disqualified.
Intellectual Property Rights and Copyrights
- Participation in the Hackathon does not require you to transfer ownership of your submission (or any part of it) to Sponsor. However, by participating in the Hackathon and entering a submission, you grant Sponsor and SJSU an irrevocable, perpetual, paid-up non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to: use any ideas, data and information contained in your submission in the development or deployment of our products or services without any reference, liability or compensation to you.
- We understand that during the competition, you may use content found on the internet for your solution. However, you should only use open-source content or any other free-to-use content. If you use any third party copyrighted materials, you must have appropriate permission and disclose the permission to us before or during the Hackathon. We will not be liable for any loss, damage, claim or expense relating to or resulting from any claim of infringement of any copyright, trade secret or other proprietary or intellectual property right of any third party. We reserve the right to ask you to take down any content that may infringe any intellectual property right.
- We are not under any obligation to use your team’s submission for any purpose (even if it has been selected as a winning entry).
- We retain the rights to all training materials provided during the Hackathon and you shall use such training materials solely for the purpose of the Hackathon.
- The term HACKATHON: DELIVERING THE FUTURE™ is a trademark of the U.S. Postal Service. Sponsor retains all rights to the use and ownership of the trademark.
Other Conditions - By registering and participating in the Hackathon, you agree:
(a) To abide by the terms of this Agreement.
(b) To abide by and accept as final and binding, all decisions made by us on matters related to the Hackathon;
(c) That we have the right, at our sole discretion, to disqualify any participant for breach of the terms stated in this Agreement;
(d) That we have the right to cancel or suspend the Hackathon with or without notice and for any or no reason. We will not be responsible for any damage or inconvenience caused by any cancellation or suspension of the Hackathon;
(e) That you are subject to the laws of the United States, this Agreement shall in all respect be construed in accordance with U.S. federal law, and you hereby agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts of the Northern District of California;
(f) That Sponsor and SJSU shall not be responsible for any loss, damage, cost or expense arising or incurred by you in connection with this Hackathon, including but not limited to the collection and subsequent use of the awarded prize, and breakdown in IT equipment;
(g) To allow us to publish your actual name, likeness, and age, in our publicity and marketing efforts for the Hackathon without any reference, liability or compensation to you;
(h) If you do not agree with any of these terms and conditions of this Agreement, do not register for and participate in this event.
Name: __________________________ Date: __________________