HUAWEI 2023 Tech Arena UK

(the “Challenge”)

CHALLENGE RULES

(the “Rules”)

This Challenge is sponsored by Huawei Research & Development (UK) Ltd. (hereinafter called the “Sponsor” or “Huawei”.

The aim of these Rules is to set out the terms and conditions governing your participation in the Challenge.

By registering for and participating in this Challenge, you are deemed to have (i) read and fully understood these Rules; and (ii) fully and unconditionally agreed to comply with these Rules.  Participants provide their agreement to these Rules by checking a box on the Challenge website (as defined below) while enrolling for the Challenge on the Challenge website. If you do not agree with any of these Rules, do not register for this Challenge and do not submit an entry.

1. TERM

This Challenge begins on 1 September 2023, and ends on 20 November 2023. The Challenge will be accessible 24 hours a day on the dedicated Challenge website operated by AGORIZE SAS (“Agorize”) at https://huawei.agorize.com/en/challenges/2023-tech-arena-uk?lang=en (the “Challenge website”), subject to possible IT maintenance operations. Dates and times in these Rules refer to UK Time (UTC+1).

2. AGREEING TO THE RULES

Any eligible person, who is registered on the Challenge website and enrols to participate in the Challenge (“Participant” or “you”), is required to review and accept these Rules. By accessing and accepting these Rules, you:

• enter into a valid and enforceable contractual relationship with the Sponsor regarding participation in the Challenge. The registration and enrolment in the Challenge does not set up any subordination relationship between the Sponsor and the Participant, and
• fully and unconditionally agree to comply with these Rules. Participants express their agreement by checking an online box while enrolling for the Challenge on the Challenge website.

Upon the breach of any provisions in these Rules by a Participant, the Participant will be immediately disqualified from the Challenge and no prize will be awarded to that Participant or his/her team.

3. REGISTRATION AND PARTICIPATION IN THE CHALLENGE

To take part in the Challenge, we must receive your completed registration by 20 September 2023, at 23:59h (UTC+1).

To register, the Participant must first have created a user account on the Challenge website, and must have truthfully and accurately completed required information, such as full name, email address, etc.

Any registration based on inaccurate, false or incomplete information will result in the Participant’s disqualification.

Please note that you will be required to read and agree to the Challenge privacy policies of Agorize (platform provider) and Huawei (Sponsor) in order to complete your registration for the Challenge.

The Participant is solely responsible for the information they provide when registering. Any intentional or unintentional mistake, anomaly or inconsistency, regarding this information, may result in the Participant’s disqualification.

Deletion of a Participant’s user account on the Challenge website will be deemed as a withdrawal from the Challenge. In this case, the Participant, regardless of whether the deletion results from the Participant’s personal action or not, will not participate in the Challenge, and will not be eligible for any prizes or compensation for this.

Apart from accepting and agreeing to these Rules during your registration to the Challenge, you must also have accepted the terms and conditions of use and the privacy policies, during the creation of your user account and your registration to the Challenge.

Registration for and participation in the Challenge is free, with no purchase or payment obligation.

4. ELIGIBILITY

This is an online competition dedicated to students only and you can participate from anywhere in the UK.

This Challenge is open and offered to any individual aged at least eighteen (18) years and with full legal capacity, if the individual is younger than the age of 18 then their parent/guardian's approval shall also be required in writing for them to enter the Challenge. Each eligible individual can only participate in the Challenge as part of one (1) team submitting one (1) entry only.

Documents to confirm the Participant’s eligibility (including but not limited to identification documents) may be required prior to awarding any prizes.

This Challenge is not open to staff members of the Sponsor and Agorize, or their family members.

This Challenge is void in countries where it is prohibited or restricted by law.

5. OPEN SOURCE OBLIGATION

The winners of the Challenge are obligated to open source their winning solutions within 30 days of the Challenge deadline. The open source code must be made available on a public repository, such as GitHub or GitLab. The code must be licensed under a permissive open source license, such as the Apache License 2.0 or the MIT License.

This obligation is in place to ensure transparency and fairness in the Challenge. By open sourcing their winning solutions, the winners allow other developers to learn from their work and to build upon their ideas. This helps to promote innovation and collaboration in the development community.

6. PURPOSE OF THE CHALLENGE AND PARTICIPATION

Participation in the Challenge must be as a team.

Participants shall form a team (“Team”) of 1 to 4 members maximum. Each Team member must accept these Rules, by clicking a hyperlink through the Agorize interface. The Sponsor may disqualify any Team (and all its members) if one or more member has not accepted or breaches these Rules. It is recommended to have 4 members per team.

The goal of the Challenge is for Participants to submit contributions (or projects) meeting the requirements determined by the Sponsor in the Challenge brief, and that are formalized by deliverables. The brief includes information regarding various deadlines, details of the prizes, Sponsor’s requirements etc. (the “Brief”). The Brief is accessible through the Challenge website.

7. DELIVERABLES

During the Challenge, Participants may upload any documents, source code or other materials (such as texts, presentations, etc.) relating to their project to the Challenge website in response and as a solution to the specific issue(s) set out in the Brief as determined by the Sponsor (“Deliverables”).

To be eligible, Deliverables must (i) address the specific issue(s) set out in the Brief; (ii) be in permitted file formats with list of essential files presented; and (iii) be in English, and in compliance with these Rules.

If a Deliverable cannot be downloaded, is not in the right format or is incompatible, illegible, or unintelligible, the Deliverable will be disqualified.

A Deliverable shall satisfy the following requirements:

• The Deliverable shall consist of and incorporate original work/ contributions from a Team and permitted third-party content.
• If content from a third party has been used in the development of the Deliverable, all rights, authorizations and agreements necessary to submit the Deliverable, and any grants/ licenses in respect thereof, have been obtained. A Deliverable in breach of the foregoing 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, any contractual right, or any other right under applicable laws. All Deliverables suspected of the foregoing infringement or violation will be void.

Participants are responsible for and shall bear all costs and expenses associated with preparing and submitting Deliverables. Participants assume all risks for damaged, lost, late, incomplete, invalid, incorrect or misdirected Deliverables.

If a Participant does not upload any Deliverable on the Challenge website before the deadline, this will be deemed a withdrawal from the Challenge. The Participant shall then be withdrawn from the Challenge, and shall have no rights to obtain any prizes or compensation from the Sponsor.

Deliverables will be judged according to the relevant selection criteria, which will be published on the Challenge website when the Challenge officially started. The source codes in your Deliverables (where applicable) may be uploaded to third-party platforms to be assessed by the Sponsor and/or the Voters (as defined below). You agree and acknowledge that the Challenge relies on your creativity, capacity, ability, and ingenuity to solve difficult problems. The Challenge does not depend, even partially, on chance or luck, and therefore should not be considered as a lottery. Under no circumstances are factors such as appearance, religion, membership in a trade union, political opinions or sexual orientation considered.

Once selection has been completed, Participants will be notified by email, phone, or by other means of the results of each Task. The Sponsor will be free to alter the dates on which results are released should this become necessary due to the number of projects to be assessed.

A. Task One

All registrations must be completed before 15 November 2023, at 23:59h (UTC+1) in order to participate Task One and Task two competitions After the registration, the participants will have the opportunity to attend the Task One online webinar on 21 September 2023 to prepare them for the Task one challenge, and the Task one challenge will be released at the same time. This competition phase will take place from 21 September 2023 to 12 October 2023 at 23:59h (UTC+1).

B. Task Two

The second webinar will happen on 13 October 2023. The Task Two challenge will be released at the same time. This competition phase will take place from 13 October 2023 to 15 November 2023 at 23:59h (UTC+0).

The selection phase is between 16 November to 19 November 2023, based on the leader board results and code review outcomes

C. Final Day Ceremony

The finalists will be invited to the offline Final Day Ceremony and present their deliverables. They will be directly notified by email to the email address provided during registration. In the event a Participant does not confirm his/her attendance at the final event, the Sponsor 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 Sponsor.

Huawei will pay UK domestic travel or accommodation costs for participants outside London attending the Final Day Ceremony in London, UK.

8. CHALLENGE PROCESS

The Challenge consists of three stages: 1) Application stage, 2) Evaluation stage, 3) Final Day Ceremony.

The application stage includes two tasks and both will be closed on 15 November 2023 at 23:59 (UTC+1). The registrants are encouraged to form the team by the cut-off date.

During the competition stage, contestants will compete in the accuracy of prediction algorithms operating under constrained memory and compute resources. Each contestant will be given a set of sequences of symbols (as a collection of files). Contestants will need to design the most accurate algorithm that predicts the next symbol based on the history of previously observed symbols in the provided sequences. To be eligible for the prize, during processing a sequence, a prediction algorithm must not exceed the pre-specified threshold on memory usage and complete processing of the whole sequence within the pre-specified timeframe.

The submission evaluation stage is to run from 16 to 19 November 2023. The finalists will be announced on 19 November 2023.

During the final day event, the finalists will be invited to attend the ceremony in London, UK on 16 November 2023.

9. PRIZES

The prizes are awarded to the winners of the Challenge and are subject to compliance with all the following conditions:

• The Deliverables comply with Section 6;
• Each Participant of a winning project complies with Sections 9 and 11; and
• It can be proven that the winning Participants fulfil the conditions of eligibility of Section 4.

No prize will be awarded to winners who do not fulfil the above conditions.

Subject to these Rules, once confirmed by Sponsor, the winner(s) will receive the following:

A total of GBP £15,000 in the prize pool:

• Grand Prize of cash reward of GBP £6,000 for the first team.
• Second Place Prize of cash reward of GBP £4,500 for the second team.
• Third Place Prizes of cash reward of GBP £2,500 for the third team.
• Certificates of Participation: each member from the top three teams will receive a trophy and their winner certificate. All other teams will receive certificates to confirm their qualification status for the Challenge.
• A Huawei souvenir pool worth GBP £2,000: All participants will have the opportunity to receive great and unique souvenirs.
• All qualifying Participants will have opportunities to apply for 3-6 months paid internships at Huawei.

Each winning Team shall have its own discretion to share the prize awarded to it among the members of that Team.

No assignment or transfer of prizes is allowed by a winning Team or its members. If a potential winning Team cannot be contacted, is unable to accept the prize or any portion of the prize for any reason, the Sponsor shall have no further obligation to such potential winning Team or its members. The Sponsor will not replace any lost or stolen prizes after being awarded to the winning Participants. All winning Participants confirm that the prizes are awarded “as is” without any warranties of any description. The Sponsor expressly disclaims any warranty regarding the Prizes.

In the event a winning Participant cannot be contacted, by email or by phone, for more than three (3) months after the first attempt to contact them was made, they will be deemed as having waived their right to claim the prize and will not be entitled to any prize or any kind of compensation.

If the prize as initially planned is unavailable, Sponsor will be free to substitute another prize of similar value. Any such decision is at Sponsor’s sole discretion and shall be final.

Any Participant who does not fulfil the conditions of participation in the Challenge as provided in these Rules during their registration and/or at any time during the Challenge will be summarily disqualified from the Challenge without prior notice and will not be entitled to any prize. In the event that a prize is awarded to a Participant who does not meet the aforesaid conditions when registering or throughout the duration of the Challenge, Sponsor reserves the right to require the Participant to return the awarded prize.

10. COMMUNICATION

In agreeing to these Rules, each Participant acknowledges and consents that the Sponsor may, throughout the EEA and UK area for the duration of the Challenge and for a period of three (3) years following the Final Task, use the Challenge and their respective Deliverables or any photos or images taken during the prize ceremony for marketing and publicity purposes by any means and through any format (whether via website, advertising banners, social networks, newsletter, press release or otherwise) now known or unknown to date, free of charge.

Such use does not entitle each winning Participant to any other payment apart from the Prize they received. The Sponsor and Agorize agree to cease the use of the aforementioned information and materials in connection with the Participant(s) at the end of the aforementioned period.

11. CONFIDENTIALITY

The Sponsor has no obligation and owes no obligation to any Participant to keep the information contained in the Deliverables confidential. When submitting any Deliverables, the Participants understand, agree and accept that any information contained therein may be publicly disclosed by the Sponsor.

Each Participant acknowledges that the Sponsor may currently or in the future be developing information internally, or receiving information from other parties, that is similar to the information contained in any of the projects submitted by the Participants. Accordingly, nothing herein shall prohibit the Sponsor from independently acquiring, developing, or having developed for it, products, concepts, systems, services, or techniques that are similar to or compete with the products, concepts, systems or techniques contemplated by or embodied in any Deliverable.

Each Participant recognize that other Participants, individuals or entities may have provided to the Sponsor or others, or made public, or may in the future submit, or make public, content that is the same or similar to any piece of information contained in any of the projects submitted by the relevant Participant. Hence, each Participant acknowledges, agrees and accepts that the Sponsor shall have the right to use such same or similar materials, and that the Participants will not be entitled to any compensation arising from the Sponsor’s use of such materials.

12. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Definitions. For the purposes of this section,

• "Intellectual Property Rights" means any and all copyright or other rights over a brand, a design or a model, a patent, an industrial design and more generally, any element, (including trade secrets and knowhow), trademarks, trade names, domain names, all of which may be protected by national and/or international laws or conventions on intellectual property.
• “Previous Rights” means any Intellectual Property Rights which have been created or held by the Participants before the start date of the Challenge and which are not related in any way to, or not created used or held for the purpose of, the Challenge.
• “Creations” means 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 which are, or are likely 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 Challenge.

Each Participant warrants to the Sponsor that they are the owner or licensee of the Intellectual Property Rights in all Creations contained in the Deliverables submitted at any stage of the Challenge, and that they obtained all rights, permissions and/or licences regarding all pre-existing Creations and any elements of the Deliverables used for the purpose of submission of project in the Challenge, for which they are not the owner.

Each Participant further warrants and guarantees that (i) their contribution is original and unprecedented and, to the extent, their Deliverable incorporate the Intellectual Property Rights of third parties, the relevant rights, permissions and/or licences have been obtained in accordance with the foregoing paragraph; (ii) their Deliverables do not infringe the copyright or any other Intellectual Property Rights of any third party; (iii) all the elements of which their submissions in the Challenge are formed, as well as all pieces of contributions and information communicated in the submission presentation documents are accurate, reliable and complete; (iv) the submission of the relevant Deliverables does not constitute an act of unfair competition of any kind; and (vi) no Deliverables are subject to any confidentiality restrictions of any kind.

It is compulsory for all 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 Sponsor shall not be held liable for any infringement of the above provisions by any of the Participants. Each Participant shall indemnify the Sponsor against any losses, actions, claims, oppositions or demands arising from Sponsor’s use of the Deliverables including, without limitation, any claim that any Creation in the Deliverables infringes third party rights (including any Intellectual Property Rights).

Use of Intellectual Property Rights in Deliverables/ Creations. Subject to Sections 9 and 10 above and the immediate subsequent paragraph, by submitting a Deliverable and participating in this Challenge, each Participant does not granting the Sponsor any rights to any Intellectual Property Rights held or owned by you, which relate to all of part of the Deliverable and the Sponsor makes no claim to the ownership of your Deliverable or any Intellectual Property Rights that it may contain.

Notwithstanding the foregoing paragraph, by taking part in the Challenge, each Participant expressly agrees to grant the Sponsor a licence in respect of the Intellectual Property Rights in the Creations and the Deliverable for a period of three (3) years following the Final Task of the Challenge, on the following terms:

• The license is fully paid-up, non-exclusive, worldwide, sub-licensable and transferable within the Sponsor’s group of entities.
• This licence shall include the right to reproduce (wholly or in part), display (wholly or in part), analyse, adapt, modify, disseminate, translate and use any elements which are part of the Creations and Deliverables, as well as any Previous Rights, which may be necessary for the purposes of (i) the assessment and selection process as described in Section 7 above; and (ii) the Sponsor’s publicity, advertising and marketing as described in Section 9 above, including for future challenges and events organised by the Sponsor.

13. MODIFICATION OF RULES, SUSPENSION AND CANCELLATION OF THE CHALLENGE

The Sponsor reserves the right to amend these Rules at any time, including the Challenge duration in case of operational requirements or other needs of the Sponsor, without prior notice to Participants regarding the enforcement or the validity of such amendments. Participants are encouraged to consult these Rules regularly. Participants expressly waive all claims or disputes related to any amendment to these Rules by the Sponsor.

Should any provision of these Rules be declared or judged illegal, unenforceable or void by a competent court, that provision in question will be considered null and void, but all other unaffected provisions/ paragraphs will be enforced within the limits of the law.

The Sponsor reserves the right in its discretion to (i) cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Challenge and these Rules, for any reason, at any time and without any liability; and (ii) to limit or restrict participation in the Challenge. The Sponsor will not be held liable for the modification, cancellation or suspension of the Challenge and no compensation or remuneration will be payable by the Sponsor.

14. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The Sponsor shall 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 Challenge website.

To the extent permitted by applicable laws, Participants agree that the Sponsor, its affiliates and all of their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, representatives and agents (“Released Parties”) will have no liability whatsoever for, and will be released and held harmless by Participants for any claims, liabilities, or causes of action of any kind or nature for any injury, loss or damages of any kind including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages to persons, including without limitation disability or death. Without limiting the foregoing, everything on the Challenge website and in connection with the Challenge is provided on an “as is” basis, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Participation in the Challenge implies acknowledgement and acceptance of the characteristics, limits and risks of the internet and related technologies, particularly with regards to performance, response time, security of software and computer equipment against various potential attacks, such as viruses, logic bombs or Trojans, and loss or misuse of data. As a result, the Sponsor shall not be held liable in any way for any damage incurred by Participants arising from these characteristics, limits and risks, which Participants accept by registering and taking part in the Challenge.

The Sponsor shall not in any case be held liable for damages resulting from faults with or delays in the submission of Deliverables by Participants, including refusal to accept these Deliverables as a consequence of their submission outside the deadlines set out in the Rules, from faults with or delays to the sending of any emails by the Participants sent as part of the Challenge, or from any alterations made to the Deliverables independently of the Sponsor.

The Sponsor shall not in any case be held liable for damages resulting from services provided by a third-party relating to the prizes.

The Sponsor shall not be held liable for the consequences of a Participant’s disqualification from the Challenge as a result of their violation of these Rules.

15. CLAIMS

Any Participant’s queries/ issues arising from the process and management of the Challenge, should be addressed no later than thirty (30) days following the Challenge end date to p_techarenauk@huawei.com.All emails in respect of such queries/ issues must include: (i) the Participant’s complete contact details (name, address, email address and phone); (ii) the name of the Challenge; and (iii) clear details relating to the queries/ issues.

16. APPLICABLE LAW AND DISPUTES RESOLUTION

The Challenge, these Rules and any action related thereto shall be governed by English law . 

In the event of any disputes arising from the Challenge or under these Rules, the Sponsor and the Participant undertake to submit their dispute to an amicable discussion between the parties prior to any legal proceedings. The party wishing to initiate discussion the shall inform the other party by means of a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt in which it will state its intentions and will explain the cause. If no agreement is reached between the parties within thirty (30) days after receipt of the registered letter, either party may choose to proceed with further legal actions.

In the absence of an amicable resolution following the discussion, parties hereby agree to submit all disputes arising from the Challenge or under these Rules to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.