Name: MSFTHacks 2017 @ University of British Columbia
Start: 2017-03-25T17:00:00.000-04:00
End: 2017-03-26T13:30:00.000-04:00
Location: MSFTHacks 2017 @ University of British Columbia

aka.ms/MSFTHacksRules

Microsoft Canada Inc.

Microsoft Hackathon Competition at MSFTHacks, Vancouver, BC (March 25 - 26, 2017)

Rules for University of British Columbia

Official Rules

COMMON TERMS USED IN THESE RULES – These are the Official Rules that govern how the MSFTHacks Competition (the "Competition") operates. In these rules, "we," "our," and "us" refer to Microsoft Canada the sponsor of this Competition. “You” and “Yourself” refer to an eligible entrant.
COMPETITION DESCRIPTION – The MSFTHacks Competition is a skill-based competition. The object of this Competition is to create innovative and original software applications.
ELIGIBILITY – To be eligible to enter the Competition, a participant must be a legal resident of Canada and registered attendee of MSFTHacks Vancouver (the “Event”). To register for the Event, individuals must submit a registration form available here by including full name and contact information, as well as the reason for wanting to participate in the Event, and Microsoft must review and confirm your registration for the Event in its sole and absolute discretion and subject to registration space. You must also be at least 16 years of age as of March 25, 2017 and actively enrolled as a student at an accredited educational institution that grants high-school or college/university (or equivalent) degrees (including home schools) at any time between January 1, 2016 and March 25, 2017. If you are considered a minor in your place of residence, then you must obtain your parent’s or legal guardian’s permission to register and participate in this Competition prior to registering in this Competition. Any potential participant who is an employee or contingent staff of Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft Canada Inc. (“Microsoft”), their affiliated companies, prize suppliers or other representatives involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Competition, or a member of the respective immediate families of such employees or anyone with whom such employees are domiciled (whether related or not) is ineligible to participate in the Competition. “Immediate family” is defined as parents, siblings, children, spouse or common law partner (regardless of where they live). In addition, Microsoft is committed to complying with government gift and ethics rules and therefore government employees are not eligible to participate.
COMPETITION PERIOD – The Competition will run from Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 2:00 pm Pacific Time (“PT”) to Sunday, March 26, 2017 at 2:00 pm PT (the “Competition Period”).
COMPETITION ENTRY – An eligible participant may enter the Competition by attending the Event in person at the University of British Columbia, the exact location of which will be announced by Microsoft prior to the Event, during the Competition Period as outlined in Competition communications. Up to four (4) eligible participants may submit a single entry as a team. At 2:00 pm PT, the Event will begin and Competition details provided to the participants.
GENERAL STANDARDS FOR ENTRIES
1. All entry materials must be presented and/or submitted in the English language unless otherwise specified by Microsoft. If you are required to make an oral presentation or provide supporting materials, these presentations and materials must be presented and/or submitted in the English language.
2. We will automatically disqualify any entrant that submits any entry or supporting materials that contain text, sound or images that we, in our sole opinion and for any reason, find vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate for public viewing, or that presents us in a negative light.
3. By submitting an entry in this Competition, you confirm that, to the best of your knowledge:
  1. The entirety of the entry is your/your team’s original work.
  2. You/your teams have obtained any and all consents, approvals, or licenses required for you to submit your entry.
  3. Important note about Copyright: Your team’s entire entry must only include material (including source code – both open source and third party sourced, user interface, music, video or images) that you own or that you have permission from the copyright/trademark owner to use. Your team’s entry may not include copyrighted materials (such as source code, user interface, background music, images or video) unless you own or have permission to use the materials in this Competition. Ownership is not defined as purchasing a CD at a music store for replay, playing a copyright recording on your guitar or repurposing an application’s user interface - your team’s entry will be disqualified if copyrighted materials, including but not limited to these examples, are a part of your entry without appropriate licensing or permissions. If you do use permissible copyrighted materials, you must include the permissions information by citing the artist/creator and license information. Note that even material released under sites such as Creative Commons, common open source code licenses, and other similar licensing may need permission or acknowledgement as per the specific license. Note: your team’s entry will be disqualified if permissions information is not included.
  4. Important note about Hardware: If your project includes a hardware component, you are not expected to provide that hardware for judging. You may explain your complete solution through your submission documentation. Any submitted software, however, should simulate hardware-related data and functionality so that your software can at least be evaluated for user experience design, platform compatibility, and so forth. If elements of your solution cannot reasonably be simulated, describe those omissions in your submission and work around those areas as best you can to enable the judges to evaluate as much of your project as is possible.
We reserve the right to disqualify or reject any entry that we, in our sole and absolute discretion, determine does not meet the above criteria. If, in any Competition, we do not receive a sufficient number of entries meeting the entry requirements, we may, at our discretion, select fewer than the designated number of winners. The decisions of the judges are final and binding in all matters related to the Competition.
COMPETITION OVERVIEW – The Competition honours the most fun, innovative, and creative games built with Microsoft tools and technology. Projects must use one or more of the following features: Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft Cognitive Services, or Microsoft Bot Framework. Winners will be selected by a panel of Microsoft judges at the sole discretion of Microsoft. Criteria will be scored on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) by each judge for each criteria listed below in order to give each team or individual, as applicable, a total score. The totals from each judge will then be average to assign a score to each individual or team, as applicable. The highest three scores as determined by the judging panel for submissions will determine the potential winners. In the event of a tie, the judges will revaluate the tied entries to determine the winner. The criteria to which judges will score the submissions are as follows:
1. Is the project’s purpose and basic functionality easily understood? (Score out of 10)
2. Is the project innovative either in user experience or in technical design and/or implementation? (Score out of 10)
3. Is the project easy to use? (Score out of 10)
4. Does the project make effective and appropriate use of the major features of its chosen platform(s)? (Score out of 10)
5. Does the project show promise for success within its targeted audience? (Score out of 10)
HOW WILL MY ENTRY POTENTIALLY BE USED? Other than what is set forth below, we are not claiming any ownership rights to your entry. However, by submitting your entry, you:
1. Are granting us an irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide right and license to Microsoft to: (i) use, review, assess, test, and otherwise analyze your entry and all its content in connection with this Competition; and (ii) feature your entry and all its content in connection with the marketing, sale, or promotion of this Competition (including but not limited to internal and external presentations, tradeshows, and screen shots of the Competition entry process in press releases) in all media (now known or later developed);
2. Agree to sign any necessary documentation that may be required for us and our designees to make use of the rights you granted above;
3. Agree to assist us and the sponsor in the creation of case studies or white papers (together "Studies") detailing your entry or entries. Studies will not include any confidential participant information. Upon your approval of the Studies’ accuracy, you agree to give us and the sponsor permission to display the Studies including trademarks, logos, and other identifying information contained therein, on our and the sponsor websites and in other documentation. This documentation may take various forms, including printed materials, online articles, video, audio, and other digital recordings;
4. Understand and acknowledge that the sponsor may have developed or commissioned materials similar or identical to your submission and you waive any claims you may have resulting from any similarities to your entry;
5. Understand that we cannot control the incoming information you will disclose to our representatives in the course of entering, or what our representatives will remember about your entry. You also understand that we will not restrict work assignments of representatives who have had access to your entry. By entering this Competition, you agree that use of information in our representatives unaided memories in the development or deployment of our products or services does not create liability for us under this agreement or copyright or trade secret law;
6. Understand that you will not receive any notice, compensation or credit for use of your entry, other than what is described in these Official Rules;
7. Please note that during and after this Competition your entry may be posted on a website selected by us for viewing by visitors to that website. We are not responsible for any unauthorized use of your entry by visitors to this website;
8. Understand that, while we reserve these rights, we are not obligated to use your entry for any purpose, even if it has been selected as a winning entry; and
9. Understand that if you do not want to grant us these rights to your entry, please do not enter this Competition.
PRIZING AND PRIZE CONDITIONS:
1. There are three (3) prizes available to be won, one per winning team. Each team will receive up to four (4) winning items, one per member of the team. The First Place prize for the individual or team with the highest score is a Microsoft Surface Books 256GB i5 8GB dGPU (approximate retail value of each is $2,449 CDN). The Second Place prize for the individual or team with the second highest score is a Microsoft IoT Pack for Raspberry Pi 3 – w/ Raspberry Pi 3 (approximate retail value of each is $114.95 CDN). The Third Place prize for the indivdual or team with the third highest score is a Microsoft Surface Arc Touch Mouse (approximate retail value of each is $79.99 CDN). All prizes will be awarded to the winners at the Event once the winners have been determined and all requirements in order to be declared a winner have been satisfied;
2. Should the prizes not be available at the Event, the prizes will be couriered to the home address of the winners (as provided by the winners in their registration form from the Event) within four (4) weeks of the receipt of the signed declaration and release. Any costs or expenses incurred by the winners in claiming or using their prizes are the responsibility of the winners;
3. The prizes are non-transferrable and no cash alternatives will be provided. Microsoft reserves the right to substitute the prizes described above with prizes of equal or greater value;
4. You may not designate someone else as the winner. If you are unable or unwilling to accept your prize, we may award it to the next highest scoring team or individual;
5. If you accept a prize, you will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the prize;
6. If you are otherwise eligible, but are considered a minor in your place of residence, then we may award the prize to your parent/legal guardian on your behalf;
7. Unless otherwise noted, all prizes are subject to their manufacturer’s warranty and/or terms and conditions; and
8. By entering, all participants agree to abide by the official rules and decisions of Microsoft which are final.
To be declared a winner, a selected participant will be required to sign a declaration and release to: (a) confirm compliance with the official rules; (b) release Microsoft from all liability; (c) accept the prize as awarded; and (d) consent to the use of winner’s name, city and/or province/territory of residence, photograph, voice, image, likeness, biographical information and information about the prize, for any publicity or programming purposes, commercial or otherwise, throughout the world in any and all media used by Microsoft and its advertising and promotional agencies in connection with the Competition, without payment or compensation.
The Competition is subject to all applicable federal, provincial and municipal laws. Void where prohibited.
The personal information collected in connection with the administration of this Competition will be managed in accordance with Microsoft’s privacy statement which is available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=521839.
Microsoft reserves the right in its sole discretion to cancel or suspend the Competition should causes beyond the control of Microsoft corrupt the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Competition (such as tampering or infection by computer virus, fraud, technical failures, printing or distribution errors, or any other causes or occurrences have compromised the fairness or integrity of the Competition).
Microsoft assumes no responsibility for any (i) late, lost, delayed, not received, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, defective or altered entries; (ii) failure to receive entries due to transmission failures or technical failures of any kind, including, without limitation, malfunctioning of any network, servers, access providers, hardware or software, whether originating with sender or recipient or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any web site; or (iii) any combination thereof, including any injury or related damage to entrants or any other persons, whether computer-related or resulting from participation or downloading of any materials in this Competition.
In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency between the terms and conditions of these rules and disclosures or other statements contained in any Competition-related materials, the terms and conditions of these rules shall prevail, govern and control.
WHAT OTHER CONDITIONS AM I AGREEING TO BY ENTERING? By entering this Competition you agree:
1. To abide by the Official Rules;
2. To release and hold harmless Microsoft, and its respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees and agents from any and all liability or any injury, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with this Competition or any prize won;
3. That Microsoft’s decisions will be final and binding on all matters related to this Competition; and
4. That, by accepting a prize, Microsoft may use your proper name and province/territory, country, or region of residence online and in print, or in any other media, in connection with this Competition, without payment or compensation to you, except where prohibited by law.
WHAT IF SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENS AND THE COMPETITION CAN'T RUN AS IT WAS PLANNED? If someone cheats, or a virus, bug, bot, catastrophic event, natural disaster, or any other unforeseen or unexpected event that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled (also referred to as force majeure) affects the fairness and/or integrity of this Competition, we reserve the right to cancel, change, or suspend this Competition. This right is reserved whether the event is due to human or technical error. If a solution cannot be found to restore the integrity of the Competition, we reserve the right to select winners from among all eligible entries received before we had to cancel, change or suspend the Competition.
If you or your Team attempts to compromise the integrity or the legitimate operation of this Competition, or if we have reason to believe that you or your Team have compromised the integrity or the legitimate operation of this Competition by cheating, hacking, creating a bot or other automated program, or by committing fraud in any way, we may seek damages from you to the fullest extent permitted by law. Further, we may disqualify you, and ban you from participating in any of our future Competitions, so please play fairly.