Dates

Start 12:30 pm CET on November 15, 2024

Submissions due 12 pm CET on November 18, 2024

Eligibility

All people are eligible to participate, except employees of Neodata, Isola, and the University of Catania. Students of the University of Catania are eligible.

Project and Submission Requirements

• What to Create: Entrants must build or update a novel functioning AI application. 

• Functionality: The Project must be capable of running consistently on the platform for which it is intended and must function as depicted in the video and/or expressed in the text description.

• New & Existing: Projects must be either newly created by the Entrant or, if the Entrant’s Project existed prior to the Hackathon Submission Period, must have been significantly updated after the start of the Hackathon Submission Period. Entrants should explain how their Project was significantly updated during the Submission Period.

• Third Party Integrations: If a Project integrates any third-party SDK, APIs and/or data, Entrant must be authorized to use them in accordance with any terms and conditions or licensing requirements of the tool.

Submission Requirements 

Submissions to the Hackathon must meet the following requirements:

• Include a Project that meets the above Project Requirements.

• Include a URL to the code repository that includes the fully reproducible source code for the application. Please email the link to info@neodatagroup.ai

• Participants will be required to grant a license to Neodata to demo the applications

• Include a URL to the fully functioning web application.

• Include a text description that should explain the features and functionality of your Project.

• It would be good to include a demonstration video of your Project. The video portion of the Submission:

  • should be less than three (3) minutes. Judges are not required to watch beyond three minutes 

  • should include footage that shows the Project functioning on the device for which it was built

  • must be uploaded to and made publicly visible on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook Video, or Youku, and a link to the video must be provided on the submission form on the Hackathon Website; and

  • must not include third party trademarks, or copyrighted music or other material unless the Entrant has permission to use such material.

• Include headshot photos of all team members 

  • These can be a link to an existing photo online or an uploaded photo.

• Include short biographies of all team members

  • These can be a link to an existing biography online or send in your bios in the submission form question.

Multiple Submissions 

An Entrant may submit more than one Submission, however, each Submission must be unique and substantially different from each of the Entrant’s other Submissions, as determined by the Sponsor and Devpost in their sole discretion.

Submission ownership

Be the original work of the Entrant, be solely owned by the Entrant, and not violate the IP rights of any other person or entity.

Testing 

Access must be provided to an Entrant’s working Project for judging and testing by providing a link to a website, functioning demo, or a test build. If Entrant’s website is private, Entrant must include login credentials in its testing instructions. The Entrant must make the Project available free of charge and without any restriction, for testing, evaluation and use by the Sponsor, Administrator and Judges until the Judging Period ends. Judges are not required to test the Project and may choose to judge based solely on the text description, images, and video provided in the Submission.

If the Project 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, the Sponsor and/or Administrator reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to require the Entrant to provide physical access to the Project hardware upon request.  

Language Requirements

All Submission materials must be in Italian or English

Team Representation

If a team or organization is entering the Hackathon, they must appoint and authorize one individual (the “Representative”) to represent, act, and enter a Submission, on their behalf. The Representative must meet the eligibility requirements above. By entering a Submission on the Hackathon Website on behalf of a team or organization you represent and warrant that you are the Representative authorized to act on behalf of your team or organization.

Intellectual Property 

Your Submission must: (a) be your (or your Team, or Organization’s) original work product; (b) be solely owned by you, your Team, your Organization with no other person or entity having any right or interest in it; and (c) not violate the intellectual property rights or other rights including but not limited to copyright, trademark, patent, contract, and/or privacy rights, of any other person or entity. An Entrant may contract with a third party for technical assistance to create the Submission provided the Submission components are solely the Entrant’s work product and the result of the Entrant’s ideas and creativity, and the Entrant owns all rights to them. An Entrant may submit a Submission that includes the use of open source software or hardware, provided the Entrant complies with applicable open source licenses and, as part of the Submission, creates software that enhances and builds upon the features and functionality included in the underlying open source product. By entering the Hackathon, you represent, warrant, and agree that your Submission meets these requirements.

Financial or Preferential Support 

A Project must not have been developed, or derived from a Project developed, with financial or preferential support from the Sponsor or Administrator. Such Projects include, but are not limited to, those that received funding or investment for their development, were developed under contract, or received a commercial license, from the Sponsor or Administrator any time prior to the end of Hackathon Submission Period. The Sponsor, at their sole discretion, may disqualify a Project, if awarding a prize to the Project would create a real or apparent conflict of interest.

5. Submission Modifications

Draft Submissions 

Prior to the end of the Submission Period, you may save draft versions of your submission on Devpost to your portfolio before submitting the Submission materials to the Hackathon for evaluation. Once the Submission Period has ended, you may not make any changes or alterations to your Submission, but you may continue to update the Project in your Devpost portfolio.

Modifications

After the Submission Period the Sponsor and Devpost may permit you to modify part of your Submission after the Submission Period for the purpose of adding, removing or replacing material that potentially infringes a third party mark or right, discloses personally identifiable information, or is otherwise inappropriate. The modified Submission must remain substantively the same as the original Submission with the only modification being what the Sponsor and Devpost permits. 

6. Judges & Criteria

Eligible submissions will be evaluated by a panel of judges selected by the Sponsor (the “Judges”). Judges may be employees of the sponsor or third parties, may or may not be listed individually on the Hackathon Website, and may change before or during the Judging Period. Judging may take place in one or more rounds with one or more panels of Judges, at the discretion of the sponsor. 

Entries will be judged on the following equally weighted criteria, and according to the sole and absolute discretion of the judges:

• Quality of the Idea: How novel and interesting is the idea?

• Implementation of the Idea: How robust and production ready is the application?

• Potential Impact: Can this be used outside of a demo app?

• Visual Appeal: How polished is the app presentation?

The scores from the Judges will determine the potential winners of the applicable prizes. The Entrant(s) that are eligible for a Prize, and whose Submissions earn the highest overall scores based on the applicable Judging Criteria, will become potential winners of that Prize.

Feedback Submission Criteria

Eligible Feedback Submissions will be evaluated based on the completeness, viability, and potential impact of the feedback.

Tie Breaking 

For each Prize listed below, if two or more Submissions are tied, the tied Submission with the highest score in the first applicable criterion listed above will be considered the higher scoring Submission. In the event any ties remain, this process will be repeated, as needed, by comparing the tied Submissions’ scores on the next applicable criterion. If two or more Submissions are tied on all applicable criteria, the panel of Judges will vote on the tied Submissions.

7. Intellectual Property Rights

All Submissions remain the intellectual property of the individuals or organizations that developed them. By submitting an entry, entrants agree that the Sponsor will have a fully paid, non-exclusive license to use such entry for judging the entry. Entrants agree that the sponsor and Devpost shall have the right to promote the Submission and use the name, likeness, voice and image of all individuals contributing to a Submission, in any materials promoting or publicizing the Hackathon and its results, during the Hackathon Period and for three years thereafter.  Some Submission components may be displayed to the public. Other Submission materials may be viewed by the sponsor, Devpost, and judges for screening and evaluation. By submitting an entry or accepting any prize, entrants represent and warrant that (a) submitted content is not copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless entrant is the owner of such rights or has permission from their rightful owner to post the content; and (b) the content submitted does not contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware or other disabling devices or harmful or malicious code.

Prizes

One 1000 euro prize will be awarded to the best project, according to the above requirements.

Code of Conduct

• gender
• gender identity and expression
• age
• sexual orientation
• disability
• physical appearance
• body size
• race
• ethnicity
• nationality
• religion
• political views
• previous hackathon attendance or lack of
• computing experience or lack of
• chosen programming language or tech stack

• hacks
• talks, presentations, or demos
• workshops
• any parties associated to the hackathon
• social media
• any other online media