Participation Agreement
Bizkathon@ HKUST 2019
(the “Hackathon”)
PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT
(the “Agreement”)
THE HACKATHON IS COMPLETELY FREE FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS.
The aim of the Agreement is to set out the terms and conditions governing your participation in the Hackathon. By registering for the Hackathon, you (the “Participant”) fully and unconditionally agree to comply with the Agreement. If you do not agree with any of the Agreement, do not register for the Hackathon.
1. ORGANIZER, SPONSOR, VENUE & HACKATHON PERIOD:
The Hackathon is to be held from Saturday, 02 November, 2019 and to Sunday, 3 November, 2019 ("Hackathon Period") at Incubator, 7/F, Lee Shau Kee Business Building, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong (“Venue”). The Hackathon is organized by HKUST Business School (“Organizer”), and is held in partnership with sponsoring partners (“Sponsor”). The Organizer is responsible for the Agreement, administrations, and operation of the Hackathon. The Sponsors are not responsible for the Agreement, administration, or operation of the Hackathon.
2. REGISTRATION AND PARTICIPATION IN THE HACKATHON
To register, you must submit information via http://bit.ly/2kOkrof (“Registration Form”) and must have truthfully and accurately completed required information. Any registration based on inaccurate, false or incomplete information will result in your disqualification. The Organizer reserves the right to proceed all necessary verifications regarding your identity and personal information.
You must also have accepted the Agreement as well as the Terms and Conditions of Use and the Privacy Policy during the registration to the Hackathon.
3. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Participation in the Hackathon is subject to the following conditions:
3.1 Eligible Individual
An Eligible Individual is defined as follows:
a) a natural person who, at the time of entry, is at least 18 years of age.
b) a student and/or an alumnus of a tertiary institution in Hong Kong, except for Sponsor’s employees and related persons (such as their immediate families (i.e. spouses, siblings, children, parents, spouses’ parents and the spouses of any of the above individuals) and their household members.
3.2 Teams
Eligible Individuals may apply as individuals or teams. All team-based Eligible Individuals must form teams of up to 5 (“Team”). An Eligible Individual cannot join more than one Team. All Eligible Individuals must be able to attend and participate in the Hackathon.
3.3 Registration Requirements
All Participants must register for the Hackathon via the online application form http://bit.ly/2kOkrof. By submitting the registration, you must accept and comply with this Agreement.
By registering, without prejudice to any other consents given to the Organizer and Sponsor, each Team and its Team members consent to be contacted by the Organizer, the Sponsor and/or their affiliates before, during or after his/her participation in the Hackathon.
The Hackathon organizers have the right at their sole discretion to determine whether an entrant is eligible for the competition. The Hackathon may disqualify, at organizers’ sole discretion, the Hackathon entries (including, without limitation, content submitted in connection therewith) that:
1. are in violation of third party rights or law or regulation;
2. use inappropriate or explicit language or images, or display content that Hackathon or Sponsors otherwise finds objectionable
4. PURPOSE OF THE HACKATHON
The goal of the Hackathon is for Participants to develop and submit a prototype during the Hackathon Period that will meet the requirements determined by the Organizer in the Hackathon brief, and that are formalized by deliverables. The brief includes but not limited to information regarding the agenda, details of the prizes, the Organizer and the Sponsor’s requirements, etc. (the “Brief”). The Brief is accessible through the Hackathon Website.
The theme to be tackled in the Hackathon is Virtual Banking.
5. SUBMISSION
Each Team must complete the prototype at the submission deadline set by the Organizer. Instructions will be provided on how to check in the code for your prototype during the event.
Winning teams may be subject to a code-review at some point following the Hackathon Period or immediately before winners are announced.
By delivering a Submission, Participants represent and warrant that:
• The Submission must be the Team’s original work;
• The Participants of the team own the rights to the Submission, subject to any license terms of the underlying Technology used in the Submission;
o “Technology” means, without limitation, content (including any imagery, audio, and audio-visual content), code, specifications, technical information, algorithms, images, design, art, music, graphics, SFX, data, and any other information or materials protected by any intellectual property right
• The Submission must not have been developed or derived from an application developer, with financial or preferential support from the Organizer and/or the Sponsor;
• Otherwise, if any data and/or API’s or other copyrightable material owned by third-party has been used in the development of the Deliverable, all rights, authorizations and agreements necessary to submit the Deliverable and grant the rights mentioned herein have been obtained. The existence of uncredited third-party contributions in the Deliverable will result in the disqualification of the Deliverable and the related Participants;
• No other individual and/or entity is entitled to claim any rights from the use of the Deliverable; and
• The content of the Deliverable does not and will not infringe or violate any rights of any third-party or entity, including, without limitation, intellectual property rights, privacy, competition law, confidentiality, or any contractual or extracontractual right. All deliverables suspected of any law(s) and/or any third-party’s right will be ineligible.
• The Submission must adhere to the terms of service per the Agreement;
• The Submission must not breach the terms and conditions of any embedded software or services used by your Application;
• The Submission must not contain any malicious code, backdoors, depict or refer to any crude, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, disparaging, discriminatory, offensive, illegal or otherwise unsuitable language, activity or other content (all as determined by the Organizer in its sole discretion), depict or refer to any content which disparages or refers negatively to the Organizer, the Hackathon, or any other person or entity (all as determined by the Organizer in its sole discretion); and any content that violates any law or any third party’s rights (including privacy, personality and intellectual property rights).
Participants are responsible for and shall bear any costs or expenses associated with preparing and submitting Deliverables unless provided by the Organizer. Participants assume all risk of damaged, lost, late, incomplete, invalid, incorrect or misdirected Deliverables.
6. HACKATHON PERIOD
Participants who are deemed eligible to participate in the Hackathon Period will be directly notified by the Organizer. In the event a Participant does not answer after the Organizer has attempted to contact him/her by any necessary means, the Organizer reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify this Participant. This disqualification shall not entitle the Participant to claim any kind of compensation from the Organizer nor the Sponsor.
The Hackathon Period consists of a working period and one to two rounds of oral demonstration of the Submission by each Team.
Each Team is required to present and demonstrate the ideas or prototypes resolving the issue in relation to the theme of the Hackathon to a panel of judges appointed by the Organizer. Demonstration time may be adjusted at the Organizer’s sole discretion. The order of demonstrations will be decided by the Organizer in its sole discretion during the Hackathon Period and will be notified to all Teams at the earliest possible time.
7. JUDGING CRITERIA
7.1 Judges
Eligible Submissions and Demonstration will be evaluated by a panel of judges appointed by the Organizer (the “Judges”). Judges may be employees of the Sponsor or external parties, may or may not be listed individually on the Hackathon Website, and may change before the Hackathon Period at the sole discretion of the Organizer.
7.2 Judging Criteria
The evaluation of each Submission will occur immediately after its demonstration with the following criteria:
Criteria Points
1 Innovation 0-5
2 UX/UI 0-5
3 Functionality 0-5
4 Technology 0-5
Each Submission will be scored based on the above stated criteria with a minimum total score of 0 points and maximum total score of 20 points, with the final total score being the average of all the judges’ scores.
The decisions of the Judge will be final. In the event of a tie, Judge will determine the winner at Judge's sole and final discretion.
8. PRIZES
The winner(s) will receive the following:
• Champion: HK$ 20,000 for the entire team
• 1st Runner-Up Prize: HK$ 10,000 for the entire team
• 2nd Runner-Up Prize: HK$ 8,000 for the entire team
• Other awards to be announced
8.1 Prize Conditions
All Prize details that are not specified in the Agreement will be determined by the Organizer in its sole discretion. The Organizer reserves the right to substitute a similar prize (or prize element) of comparable or greater value.
No cash redemption or transfer of the right to receive the Prize is permitted, except in the discretion of Organizer. The prize consists only of the item(s) expressly specified in the Agreement and does not include any travel arrangements or expenses, unless explicitly stated in the Agreement. All expenses or costs associated with the acceptance or use of the prize or any component of the prize are the responsibility of the respective winner. The prize is awarded “as is” and without any warranty, except as required by law. In no event will more than the number of prizes stated in the Agreement be awarded.
8.2 Prize Distribution
The Organizer will not award a prize if there are no eligible Submissions entered in the Hackathon, or if there are no eligible Teams or Submissions for a specific Prize.
9. WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT AND VERIFICATION
Potential winners of this Hackathon will be announced in the Venue shortly after the Judges’ decision. The Organizer may take any necessary actions to verify a Team’s compliance with the Agreement before awarding a Prize, including, without limitation, engaging a third-party vendor to evaluate the prototype software code and/or requiring a team to provide evidence of permission to use certain third-party materials.
The winner must understand and acknowledge that, despite winner announcement, upon violation to comply with the Agreement, the Organizer will select an alternate winner with the next highest score based on the same judging criteria.
10. DISQUALIFICATIONS
A Team’s Submission may be disqualified if the Organizer has any reason to believe, in the Organizer’s sole discretion, that the Submission:
a) contains any element that is malicious, corrupt, damaged, incomplete, inappropriate, or offensive;
b) violates the terms of use of any social media service, website, mobile application or any other platform used in connection with the Submission;
c) infringes any third-party intellectual property rights;
d) violates any applicable law or
e) violates or does not comply with any section of this Agreement.
A Team may be disqualified for any of the following actions, with or without warning, in the Organizer’s sole discretion:
(i) verbal abuse of another participant or the Hackathon staff;
(ii) inappropriate touching or harming of another participant or Hackathon staff;
(iii) breach of the Agreement or any other agreement entered in connection with the Hackathon;
(iv) violation of or non-compliance with any section of the Agreement.
If the Organizer has any reason to believe that a team has compromised the integrity or the legitimate operation of the Hackathon, or has attempted to compromise the integrity or the legitimate operation of the Hackathon, including, without limitation, by cheating, plagiarizing, creating a malicious bot or other automated program, or by committing fraud in any way, the team will be disqualified and asked to leave the premises of the Hackathon Period.
If a Hackathon staff has any reason to believe that a Participant’s health is jeopardized, the Participant may be required to discontinue his/her participation and will be asked to seek immediate medical assistance. The related Participant’s teammates, if any, may continue participating in the Hackathon at their discretions.
All disqualification decisions made by the Organizer are final and not subject to appeal.
11. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Definitions:
• "Intellectual Property Rights" refers to any copyright or other rights over a brand, a design or a model, a patent and, more generally, any element, (including trade secrets and know-how), that may be protected by national and/or international laws or conventions on intellectual property (“Intellectual Property Rights”)
• “Previous Rights” refer to any Intellectual Property Rights and/or any associated know-how held by the Participants before the start date of the Hackathon (“Previous Rights”)
• “Creations” refer to any software (including source and object code software), database, technical specifications, text, design, model, information, knowledge, method, process or product, as well as any resulting elements and/or processes likely or otherwise to be protected according to national and/or international laws or conventions on intellectual property developed by any Participant as a part of any submitted deliverable throughout the Hackathon (“Creations”).
Warranty of non-infringement. When submitting any Submissions, at any stage of the Hackathon, each Participant guarantees to the Organizer that he/she is the co/owner and/or co/holder of the Intellectual Property Rights regarding all or part of the Creations contained in the Submissions submitted at any stage of the Hackathon, and that he/she has obtained all rights and permissions regarding all pre-existing Creations and any elements of the Deliverables for which he/she does not hold the relevant rights.
Each Participant guarantees (i) that his/her contribution is original and unprecedented; (ii) that it do not infringe upon the copyright or any Intellectual Property Rights of any third party; (iii) that all the elements of which his/her submissions are formed, as well as all pieces of contributions and information communicated in the submission presentation documents are accurate, reliable and complete; and (iv) that the submission of the relevant Deliverables does not constitute an act of unfair competition of any kind.
It is compulsory for Participants to indicate the source of any pre-existing Creations of whichever nature and on whichever support that are included in any submitted deliverable. Any Deliverable involving several Participants constitutes a collaborative work and it should be treated as such in accordance with the applicable regulation in force.
Liability. The Organizer cannot be held liable for any infringement of the above provisions by Participants. Each Participant shall indemnify the Organizer against any disturbance, action, claim, opposition and demand or eviction attempt from any third party in connection with any Creation in the Deliverables (Intellectual Property Rights included).
By submitting a Submission and participating in this Hackathon, you are not granting the Organizer any rights to any intellectual property supporting all or part of the Deliverable and the Organizer makes no claim to ownership of your Submission or any intellectual property that it may contain.
12. MODIFICATION OF AGREEMENT, SUSPENSION AND CANCELLATION OF THE HACKATHON
Update of the Agreement. The Organizer reserves the right to amend the Agreement at any time without prior notice to Participants regarding the enforcement or the validity of these amendments. Participants waive all claims or disputes related to any amendment to the Agreement.
Hackathon Cancellation or Suspension. The Organizer reserves the right in its sole discretion, to (i) cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Hackathon and the Agreement, for any reason, at any time and without any liability, and (ii) to limit or restrict participation in the Hackathon. The Organizer will not be held liable for the modification, cancellation or suspension of the Hackathon and no compensation or remuneration will be due to the Participants.
13. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
The Organizer will in no way be held liable in the event of breakdown or failure, regardless of the cause, of any telecommunications network used that causes Participants difficulty in or prevents Participants from identifying themselves on or gaining access to the Hackathon Website.
14. PRIVACY POLICY
Participation in the Hackathon requires the communication of the Participant's personal data ("Personal Data").
The Organizer, Sponsor and their affiliates respect the privacy of all Participants. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and safeguard your information and data when you attend our events or visit our websites. We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will be emailed to all users. The most up-to-date version of our Privacy Policies can be found at http://www.bm.ust.hk/en-us/privacy-policy
15. VIDEO TAPING AND STILL PHOTOGRAPHY
By participating in the Hackathon, all Participants agree to be photographed and videotaped by the Organizer or its contractors without receiving compensation of any kind. You understand that the images and footage may be broadcast, displayed, reproduced, edited, exhibited, used and distributed by the Organizer over the Internet and/or any other communication medium now existing or hereafter created, for promotional, revenue producing and/or any other purpose as the Organizer determines in its sole and absolute discretion. This authorization explicitly includes the use of your name, likeness, and/or voice. You may opt out of being photographed and/or videotaped by informing the Hackathon Period staff upon check in at the Hackathon Period that you do not consent to be photographed or videotaped, or by approaching the photographers or videographers directly.
(updated on 8 October 2019)