Hackathon Rules

These rules are subject to change. The final rules will be given out on the day of the event.

• All design elements, code, hardware builds, etc. for your project must be created during the event. Third party tools and frameworks are allowed as well as your normal tooling (Gulp, Yeoman, Composer, NPM, Bower, etc.). While you may not begin coding in advance, you can plan and discuss with your team in advance. Written documents and design sketches are allowed.  You may also incorporate pre-existing material that is freely available to the public into your project, such as public domain images, Creative Commons music, open-source libraries, existing APIs and platforms, and the like.
• Teams must plan on writing significant software, though hardware may be incorporated.
• Teams must be comprised of 2-4 people.
• Only ten of the competing teams will present their projects in the final round of judging at the end of the event.  The presenting teams will be determined by an initial round of judging that will take place during the final 1.5 hours of the event.  Note: we recommend that, prior to the beginning of preliminary judging, teams prepare a short (~2 minute) project pitch to be given to a subset of the judges.
• Teams that make it to the final round will be given up to three minutes to present their finished project to a panel of judges.
• The prizes not specified otherwise will be awarded solely based on the decision of the judging panel.  Some prizes may be determined by peer or other forms of review.
• At least one team member must be physically present during sign-in, and one must be conscious and present to present the project to the judges during their assigned presentation time. A team of three or four may have one remote member who never works from the hackathon location. The other members must spend the majority of their design/coding time at the hackathon location.
• Any intellectual property developed during the hackathon will belong to the team that developed it. We expect that each team will have an agreement between themselves regarding the IP, but this is not required.

Code of Conduct

By participating in HACKHouston, you agree to abide by the following code of conduct:

• Please treat all other participants with the utmost respect.  We ask that you act kindly, behave professionally, and do not insult or put down other attendees.  Remember that harassment and racist, sexist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate for this event. If at any point you see a fellow hacker being harassed, please talk to the nearest hackathon organizer.
• Please treat our sponsors, organizers, and judges with the utmost respect. Without them, nothing would be possible. Consider taking some time out of your work to go meet and speak with them. If they come over to talk to you, we ask that you give them a bit of your time. They're here for you! Show them you appreciate it.

Failure to comply with the above-stated Rules and Code of Conduct may result in the offending team's disqualification.