OFFICIAL RULES FOR THE MACH ALLIANCE MACHATHON, January 22-29, 2021

1. Objectives of MACHathon - Connected edition

The MACH Alliance, a non-profit co-operation founded in June 2020 with the goal to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape (further also referred to as organizer) is launching the MACHathon, a Digital MACHathon (= hackathon on MACH technology) event to be held exclusively online/remote via platform devpost on January 22-29, 2021. 

At this event, developers, designers and marketing experts will be asked to find digital solutions to the motto “Getting Unstuck”.

Participation in the MACHathon is free of charge.

2. Date and place for the event

The MACHathon is to be held exclusively online on the days of January 22, 2021, to January 29, 2021.

MACH Alliance reserves the right to change the days, time and location of the event due to technical or organizational needs by announcing such changes on the event's official web site, which is https://machalliance.org/MACHathon.

3. Participants

·   The MACHathon is open to those who are interested in technology and innovation and have an interesting project or other idea to develop within the scope of the challenges proposed (see section 5). The event is open to

o   Developers

o   Designers

o   Marketing Specialist

·   Participation in the MACHathon is open to teams of minimum 3 people, aged 18 or older;

4. Requirements for acceptance and rules of participation

·   Registering for the MACHathon is entirely free of charge. You can participate as part of a team of a minimum of 3 people.

·   Teams wishing to sign up for the MACHathon must complete the online registration form at https://machalliance.org/MACHathon indicating the personal details of the individual or of each team member. By signing up, each individual participant or team member accepts these official rules for the MACHathon.  Registrations are open until 15th of January 2021. Team wishing o register aftre the official registration is closed, can send a mail to info@machalliance.org . The MACH Alliance reserves the right not to admit teams requesting participation after the registration closing date.

·   The members of each team are to ensure that the personal information provided upon registration online is true and accurate and must unconditionally accept any and all decisions made by MACHathon organizers with regard to event organization.

·   The admission of teams or individuals to the competition is on a first-come, first-served basis.

·   Event participants may be members of just one team.

·   Each team must be given a name as chosen by its members. Team names must not be connected in any way with the names of companies or registered trademarks or use expressions that incite violence or are discriminatory, obscene, or represent any form of defamation. Failure to comply will result in disqualification.

·   If information provided during online registration is found to be incomplete and/or inaccurate, even if related to just one team member, the entire team concerned will be excluded from the competition.

·   Teams may not be changed once the competition has begun, and should even just one member of a team leave the competition, the entire team will be rendered ineligible.

·   The members of each team undertake not to present projects that have previously been submitted to other initiatives.  

·   By accepting these Regulations and participating in the MACHathon, each participant undertakes, for the entire duration of the competition, to make use of any materials and equipment provided by MACH Alliance with the utmost care and diligence and to comply fully with the rules of conduct and safety established by MACH Alliance. Event participants will be held liable for any damage caused to people or property.

·   MACHathon participants hereby acknowledge that event participation is free of charge and that participation does not entail any right to compensation of any kind or to reimbursement of any expenses incurred.

MACHathon participants hereby accept not to disclose any information which would be considered as confidential information during the event to any person. These provisions will not apply to any information which has become publicly available other than through the breach of MACHathon participants, information lawfully possessed by the MACHathon participants before the disclosure hereunder, information obtained from a third party who is free to disclose it. The confidentiality obligation shall survive after the event.

5. Personal data

·   During registration for the MACHathon, the organizer will collect and process personal data (name, email address, company, job title) from each individual participant or team member which is necessary for the preparation, and implementation of the event.

·   The personal information shall only be processed in accordance with the relevant local legislations, e.g. GDPR.

·   The participant may request information about the personal data stored by the organizer at any time. In addition, the participant has the right to have incorrect personal data corrected, to have personal data blocked or deleted, provided as this does not conflict with any legal obligation to retain data. Questions regarding the collection, processing or use of personal data and requests for information, correction, blocking or deletion of personal data should be addressed to: marketing@machalliance.org .

6. Topics to be developed / covered

The topic to be addressed by the teams admitted, throughout the duration of the competition, is How to help people get unstuck. Due to COVID’s grip on the world, most people have experienced what it means to be stuck at home. While that experience is new to many, it has always been the routine for those with health challenges or disabilities - with or without COVID-19. Participants will be asked to use digital technologies and composable architecture in creative, innovative ways and to show up with ideas how to help people to get virtually unstuck. The goal of this challenge is to create prototypes of products, services and ideas that are able to generate social and economic value for the community by hacking common objects and using open data, open-source libraries, public APIs, frameworks for fast prototyping and software development, microcontrollers, sensors, and other hardware (e.g. 3D printers, beacons, wearables, etc.).

7. The panel of judges

Composition

The projects executed by the teams for the competition will be evaluated by a panel of expert judges, some of which will be members of MACH Alliance, along with other authoritative figures from the world of high-tech and innovation, both business and tech savvy.

Judging

The winners of the MACHathon will be the five teams with the highest total scores in each of the award categories and one team with the highest overall score. In the event of a tie, subsequent votes will be held until the winning teams have been selected. In addition, a people's choice award can be won. For the People´s choice award, after completion of the MACHathon, all projects will be up for popular vote for one week commencing 29 January. The winner will be the project/team with the most votes.

The judging framework is defined as follows:

Please find the evaluation scale for each of the awards and the overall 1st MACHnificent award below here to calibrate your scoring as best as we can. Please make sure to review the scoring framework so we can address any questions or unclarities in time for you. 

When an evaluation scale is required, please use a 1 to 5 scale. Where:

• 1 is the lowest (e.g. very poor, strongly disagree)

• 3 is the midpoint (e.g. fair, undecided)

• 5 is the highest (e.g. excellent, strongly agree)

Winner determination

For each award  the winner will be determined by 

Tide breaker: sum of the average of each of the other categories for a total of 20 extra points

Overall evaluation

Maturity Award

For the most complete solution

Usability award

For the most innovative UI/UX solution

Integration award

For the most innovative combination of solutions stacked together

Relevance Award 

For the solution with the highest perceived value for the end users

Viability Award 

For the solution with the highest perceived business value

MACHnificent 

Award for the overall winners

8. Prizes

Winning teams will be awarded to following prizes by the panel of judges:

·   1 award and 1 gift card in the amount of $500 for each of the five teams with the highest score in each of the award categories.

·   1 award and 1 gift card in the amount of $1000 for the team with the highest overall score

·   1 award sponsored by one MACH Alliance Member for the winner of the people’s choice award.

9. Intellectual property rights, guarantees, and release of responsibility

By participating in the MACHathon and accepting these Rules, each participant hereby:

·   declares that each prototype or mock-up presented is an original work and in no way violates, in whole or in part, the intellectual or industrial property rights of others and releases MACH Alliance and its partners from any and all responsibility, liability, or request for compensation for damages that should be made by any third party;

·   acknowledges that each prototype or mock-up presented is the property of the team, which takes full responsibility for ensuring such rights of ownership, intellectual property and originality within the limits of the law (e.g. filing of patents and other such registrations as appropriate);

·   acknowledges that any publication by MACH Alliance of the prototype or mock-up on web sites or social media will result in the same being visible to the public and that MACH Alliance assumes no responsibility for any use and/or abuse of the idea and/or any development of the idea and/or related project by any party coming into contact with said idea online or on social media and hereby waives any right to demand compensation for damages from MACH Alliance for any reason.

10. Limitation of Liability

The organizer is always liable to the participant without limitation.

·   for damages caused to the participant by the organizer intentionally or through gross negligence,

·   according to the Product Liability Act as well as in the case of non-compliance with a given guarantee, and

·   for damages resulting from injury to life, body or health for which the organizer is responsible.

In all other cases, the liability of the organizer is excluded.

EVENT PARTICIPATION

11. REGISTRATION

Registration for participation in the MACHathon is to take place online by providing all necessary information using the information that can be found at https://machalliance.org/MACHathon.

Registration will begin on January 01 2021, and end on January 21 2021.

Any applications submitted with incomplete or inaccurate information will result in the team being disqualified from participation in the MACHathon. MACH Alliance rulings in this regard are final.

Registration does not ensure participation in the MACHathon.

12. CONFIRMATION OF PARTICIPATION

The teams or individuals selected in accordance with the General Regulations above will receive official confirmation of their acceptance to the MACHathon sent to the e-mail address provided at the time of registration.

13. MACHATHON: THE EVENT

13.1 The competition

The MACHathon will begin on January 22, 2021, with a virtual pre-recorded kickoff session and will come to a close with a virtual awards ceremony on January 29, 2021.

The competition proper is scheduled to begin on January 22, 2021, and prototypes or mock-ups are to be turned in by no later than EOB on January 28, 2021.

Without prejudice to the provisions of section 4 of the General Regulations, should even just one member of a team decide to leave the competition prior to EOB on January 28, 2021, the prototype or mock-up produced by that team will not be evaluated by the judges, and the team will automatically be disqualified from the competition.

At the end of the competition phase, each team must present the output of their efforts in accordance with the instructions provided by MACH Alliance. A 3-minute video is mandatory. Other additional documentation can be handed in, but will remain optional for the judges to look at.

Each participant must provide their own computer or other device for the design and development of the project.

13.2 Presentation of product

At the end of the hackathon, each team will present their work for evaluation by the judges in a 3-minute-video.  

13.3 Project evaluation and selection of winners

The judges will evaluate all of the works presented by the team based on the following 4 parameters:

Overall evaluation:

Additionally, the judges will score each project against specific insights for each of the awards.

Evaluation process:

·   Step 1

Each team will be asked to submit a 3-minute-video to show the panel the work they have produced. They will also be asked to hand in an architecture overview, as well as an explanation on which technology stack they used and why.

At the conclusion of the presentation, each juror will assign a vote ranging from 1 (=bad) to 5 (=excellent) for all four parameters, not shown to the other judges, and the sum of the scores of the entire panel will determine the final rankings.

·   Step 2

Once the final rankings have been determined, the top 5 positions will be announced.

·   Step 3

Award ceremony for the top 5 teams and the people’s choice award winner.

All of the projects handed in, regardless of ranking, will be analyzed again by the competent areas of MACH Alliance to determine their feasibility and how well they are aligned with MACH Alliance strategies. Should MACH Alliance then be interested in further developing a project presented during the MACHathon, the related team may be contacted for more information and to discuss potential forms of collaboration.

14. FINAL COMMENTS

Participation in the MACHathon is subject to observance of the regulations established in these Rules, which all participants have accepted upon submitting their applications, and to authorizing MACH Alliance to handle personal data and to make use of video and other images produced during the event by participants and MACH Alliance representatives.

Participants who fail to comply with the provisions of these Rules will be removed from the event, as will those who hinder and/or seek to compromise the proper functioning of the judging process or the outcome of the event as a whole by way of fraudulent or other prohibited conduct.

These Regulations apply solely to participants of the MACHathon to be held online on January 22-29, 2021.

In addition to the above, participants undertake to observe the following simple rules of conduct:

o   respect the other participants;

o   do not use expressions that incite violence or forms of discrimination, obscenity, or defamation;

o   avoid content that is offensive, vulgar, defamatory, or that violates privacy or is otherwise against applicable law, as well as advertising content or content that concerns political or religious views or other such ideologies;

o   avoid developing applications that are clearly off topic compared to the assigned challenge; 

o   do not violate copyrights, trademarkds, or other such rights;

o   observe data-protection legislation;

o   do not receive outside assistance by way of e-mail or other forms of messaging.

15. Severability

Should a provision of these Rules be or become invalid or contain an unintentional gap, the validity of the other provisions shall not be affected thereby. In place of the invalid provision or to fill the unintentional gap, a legally valid provision shall apply which corresponds as closely as possible to the purpose of these Rules.

16. Governing Law

These Rules and the legal relations created hereunder will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Germany.

The Terms of Service of Devpost.com apply.

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