Florida Hackathon Guidelines

Hackathon Terms and Conditions / Guidelines / Regulation

The CSTA Miami and CSTA PBC/Broward sponsored by all of the amazing organizations above (sponsors), plan to carry out the Hackathon, on December 10th, which will be governed by the provisions of these terms and conditions (terms).

 

1. Purpose

1.1. The Hackathon will promote a programing challenge over a period of 9 hours starting on Saturday December 10th, 2022, after the opening ceremony at 8:00 AM and concluding on the same day at 5:00 PM. Details about the challenge would be presented during the opening ceremony.

2. Organization

2.1. The Hackathon is organized by CSTA Miami and CSTA PBC/Broward . These terms and the event will be promoted through Eventbrite and different social media sites.

3. Facilities and Infrastructure

3.1. The opening ceremony will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams, beginning at 8:00 AM on Saturday December 10th, 2022. Teams will be given no less than 5 consecutive hours to work on the challenge.

3.2. Participants will be able to connect with event organizers and mentors during the day. Office hours will be posted during the opening celebration.

3.3. Participants will be responsible for their own IT equipment, such as laptops or mobile devices, Wi Fi and web access.

3.4. Participants that wish to join the event in person can do so at the following locations.

Jacksonville, FL

CSX 550 Building

550 Water St, Jacksonville, FL 3220

Miami, FL

The IDEA Center at MDC Wolfson Campus

315 Northeast 2nd Avenue Building 8, 5th Floor

Miami, FL 33132

 

4. Participants and Applications

4.1. Students in all middle and high school grades (public, private, homeschool and all other categories) and levels of experience are eligible to participate in the Hackathon. Teams can be formed with students from different middle and high schools within the state of Florida.

4.2. Individuals can only participate in the Hackathon as a team. Participants shall be responsible for the organization of the teams and each team shall consist of a minimum of 3 members and a maximum of 5 members. The organization shall accept only one registration per team. An adult sponsor is required for every team. The adult sponsor could be a teacher, parent, or legal guardian of one of the team members.

4.3. Formal registration shall be submitted via this website. Registration will close on December 4th. 2022.

4.4. The application shall be accompanied by the complete identification of each one of the team members, particularly: Full name, email and school affiliation. The organization ensures the confidentiality and protection of all personal data provided for participation in the Hackathon, which will not be transferred or used for any other purpose.

5. Event Details

5.1. The Hackathon is a competition intended to encourage the creation and development of project that involves computer programming and that responds to the challenge posed by the event organizers.

5.2. The project could be an application, a video game, a website or any other form of computer programing using any programming language.

5.3. The duration of the event is 9 hours, and the kickoff of the competition will start at 8:00 AM on Saturday December 10th, 2022.

5.4. The event will start with a team briefing and the reveal of the challenge.

5.5. Teams will have until the specified time to submit a 2 minute video explaining the project they created to solve the challenge. The goal of the video is to help the judges understand the creative process of the project. The judges will evaluate both the program and the video submission.

5.6. The judge or judges will deliberate in accordance with the criteria provided for in paragraph 7.1 of these terms to select the winners.

5.7. Winners will be announced during the closing ceremony which will take place online.

 

6. Panel of Judges

6.1. The panel of judges will be composed of CSTA members, and other guests with recognized experience in the subject matter of computer science and programming.

6.2. The decisions of the panel will be made by following the criteria from paragraph 7.1.

6.4. These decisions will be made at the panel’s sole discretion. No team or team member shall make any claim or appeal against the decisions, either interlocutory or final, of the panel.

 

7. Selection of Winning Team(s)

7.1. For the selection of the winning team(s), the evaluation criteria of the submission to be used by the panel will be:

8. Prizes

8.1. Prizes will be awarded to the winning teams as follows:

First Prize$600 plus 100% Team Scholarship to ShareNest (complete program plus unlimited one-on-one mentorship a $5,000 value)

Second Prize$450 plus 95% Team Scholarship to ShareNest (complete program plus unlimited one-on-one mentorship a $4,750 value)

Third Prize$300 plus 90% Team Scholarship to ShareNest (complete program plus unlimited one-on-one mentorship a $4,500 value)

8.2. Prizes will be delivered via mail and email to the adult sponsor of the team within 90 days after the announcement of the winners.

8.3. The hackathon organizers reserve the right not to deliver prizes (in whole or in part) should the quality of the final products not meet the challenge criteria of the event and/or should the panel of judges decide not to do so, at its sole discretion. No team or team member shall dispute or make any claims about the decision.

8.4. The payment of any taxes, fees, charges or contributions related to the prizes is the sole responsibility of each individual team member of the winning teams.

8.5. The awards ceremony will take place at the end of the event following the announcement of the winners. If the winners are not present at the time of the announcement, they will be notified via email. The awarding of prizes to third parties will not be allowed.

 

9. Acceptance of and Agreement to Terms and Conditions

9.1. Any application to participate in the Hackathon implies the full acceptance of these terms and conditions.

9.2. Participants agree to the following conditions for the application and participation in the Hackathon:

9.2.1. The solutions developed shall not feature any references of a sexual nature, explicit or suggestive, shall not be offensive, obscene, pornographic or violent or derogatory to any ethnic, racial, religious, professional or age group. They should not encourage any form of hate or group hate nor contain derogatory comments about CSTA and sponsors or its products or services, or other people, products or companies.

9.2.2. The solutions developed shall not advertise illegal drugs or firearms (or the use of either), or any activity that may convey unsafe, dangerous or political messages.

9.2.3. The solutions developed shall not present registered trademarks or logos owned by third parties or advertise or promote any brand or product of any kind.

9.2.4. The solutions developed shall not contain materials protected by copyright or property of third parties (including photographs, sculptures, paintings and other works of art or images published on websites or on television, movies or other media). Participants shall ensure that the ideas/prototypes/apps proposed are innovative and original.

9.2.5. The solutions developed shall not present any names, images, photographs or other evidences that identify any person, living or dead, without explicit authorization from them or their representatives.

9.2.6. During the Hackathon, participants shall act with the utmost courtesy and respect for all persons and entities involved in the event.

9.3. Failure to comply with the terms and conditions provided for in this clause may result in, by decision of the panel of judges, at its sole discretion, the exclusion of the participant and/or team from the Hackathon with no claim or appeal.

 

10. Intellectual Property10.1. By participating in the Hackathon, participants acknowledge and accept, for all legal purposes, that:

All intellectual property rights are exclusively owned by the participants of the competition, including copyright and related rights on the ideas/prototypes/apps and their components, whose design and development the participants have been involved in during the Hackathon.

 

11. Questions or Suggestions

11.1. For clarification, applicants and participants shall first refer to the information available on this site.

11.2. For any further information or suggestion, the following email address should be used: willy@tealsk12.org.

11.3. Any omission shall be settled by the panel of judges, pursuant to Clause 6 of these terms.