Terms and Conditions

Version 0.9. March 12th, 2025.

By registering for this Hackathon event or participating in any way, you fully and unconditionally agree to comply with all of the terms and conditions below. If you do not agree with any of these terms and conditions, do not register for and participate in this event and do not submit an entry.

This event is aimed at promoting the development of solutions that involve the use of Apache Beam by giving awards to the winner/s as consideration of his/her/their works.

“Software Guru” is the commercial name of “Nearshore Link, Inc”, a Texas corporation.

THIS EVENT IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW.

Thank you for participating in the Beam College 2025 Hackathon, organized by Software Guru. This document explains the conditions of the agreement between you (the “Participant”) and Software Guru (“The Organizer") with respect to this hackathon.

1. Overview

  1. The Event is designed to recognize the best Entry built using Apache Beam as defined in the General Solution Requirements.

  2. External sites, documents, and resources are documented in the External Sites and Resources section.

  3. The Event will be held online from May 17th, 2025 at 3 pm UTC to May 18th, 2025 at 5 pm UTC.

  4. Participants are expected to form teams. Team size will be a minimum of 2 participants and a maximum of 6 participants unless otherwise stated.

  5. In this agreement, the term “we”, “us” or “our” refers to Software Guru, and the term “you” refers to you, the entrant, both as an individual and as part of your team.

  6. Unless otherwise specified, times listed in this agreement refer to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) timezone.

  7. The Organizer has the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any Participant for breach of the agreement. The Organizer has the right to cancel or suspend the Hackathon with or without notice and for any or no reason. In such cases, the Organizer is not responsible for any damage or inconvenience caused by a cancellation or suspension of the Hackathon.

2. Elegibility

  1. The hackathon is open to registered participants who are at least 18 years old.

  2. The following people, however, are not eligible to participate:

    a) individuals who are or at any point since January 1, 2025 have been employed by Google LLC or any of its subsidiaries or Software Guru.

    b) Residents of: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, Belarus, or Russia.

  3. If you are an employee of a corporation, government agency, or an academic institution, you are responsible for ensuring that your participation in the Event complies with any policies your corporation, agency, or institution may have regarding participation in contests of this type. We are not responsible for any disputes arising between you and your employer.

3. Idea Presentation and Voting

  1. Registrants will organize in teams and apply to be approved as event contestants. In order to keep logistics manageable, we will limit the amount of teams to a maximum of 15. We cannot guarantee that all registered attendees will be able to join a competing team.

  2. Each team designates a team leader, who will be the main person of contact for the team with the Organizers.

  3. We are not responsible for, and will not assist in resolving, any disputes between teammates.

4. Entry

  1. By submitting an Entry, you represent and warrant that

    1. Any code supplied by you for your Entry is newly created by you or your team during the Event or is publicly available in accordance with the General Solution Requirements below.

    2. Your Entry does not violate the rights — including, but not limited to, copyrights, trademark rights, or patent rights— of any third party.

    3. You have secured all rights necessary from third parties to submit the Entry.

    4. That you have complied with this agreement.

  2. We reserve the right to disqualify any Entry that is offensive or otherwise unlawful. Please make sure your Entry is appropriate for all viewing audiences. e) Please see Section 8 for information about how we may use your Entry.

5. General Solution Requirements

  1. You must create an innovative, demonstrable application that garners the most judging points at the conclusion of the Event. The idea for your Entry Solution may have existed before the Event.

  2. Usage of Apache Beam. Your solution must use the Apache Beam programming model. How much you take advantage of Apache Beam’s capabilities is a key evaluation criteria.

  3. Usage of 3rd party technologies: You are allowed to use other sample code, libraries, SDKs, and APIs as long as these technologies are:

    1. Publicly available and discoverable - for the purpose of Other Technologies, this shall mean available on the internet as of Jan. 1st, 2025; indexed and reachable through the Google search engine.

    2. Easily accessible (i.e., anyone can download or access if signup is required, access must be granted within 3 hours).

  4. With the exception of Apache Beam and Other Allowed Technologies, all code included in your Entry must be created by you and your registered team during the course of the Event. Each team may only submit one Entry, and all materials related to the Entry must be in English.

  5. If you use any third party copyrighted materials, you must have appropriate permission and disclose the permission information to Software Guru.

  6. We reserve the right to assess your eligibility and compliance with this agreement at any point during the Event. If we require any assistance in order to assess your compliance, you must promptly provide that assistance. If you do not provide the requested assistance, or if we have reason to believe that you are not complying with this agreement, you may be disqualified, at our sole discretion.

6. Judging

  1. You will be given up to four minutes to publicly demonstrate your Solution in front of a panel of judges and peers, followed by a two-minute public question-and-answer period. All team members must be present at the presentation.

  2. Judges will not be Software Guru employees. If a Judge or participant has a conflict of interest, they must identify the conflict to us and that Judge will be recused from judging the Entry with the conflict. An alternate judge will be identified as a substitution for the judge with the conflict. For a current list of judges and their companies visit the Event Site.

  3. The judges will evaluate your solution based on your demo according to the following Judging Criteria, each of which will be scored on a scale of between 1-10 points. In the event of a tie, judges will deliberate to determine the winner.
    i) Problem Being Solved (20%)
    ii) Usage of Apache Beam capabilities (40%)
    iii) Technical accomplishment (20%)
    iv) User experience (20%)

  4. At approximately 5 pm UTC on May 18th, 2025 the winning teams will be announced.

  5. Entries may be subject to a due diligence review for eligibility and compliance with this agreement or any other posted requirements. Determination of eligibility and compliance is at our sole discretion, and may result in your disqualification.

7. Prizes

  1. The qualifying team with the highest judging score will be awarded US $1,500 or equivalent in vouchers and prizes; the second highest scoring qualifying team will be awarded US $1,000 or equivalent in vouchers and prizes; the third highest scoring qualifying team will be awarded US $500 or equivalent in vouchers and prizes.

  2. The prizes are per team, and each team will decide how to divide it.

  3. The Organizer is not responsible for any dispute among teams or team Participants related to prizes.

  4. The Organizer reserves the right to award additional prizes or giveaways with little or no notice.

  5. The prize money will be sent to the winners within one month from the receipt of all necessary forms and identification.

  6. A representative of each team may be required to sign an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability and Publicity Release, and tax receipt (CFDI) in order to receive a prize. If you do not sign the required forms or provide the required information in a timely manner, we may disqualify you from receiving a prize.

  7. Each member of the winning teams is solely responsible for paying income taxes on awarded prize.

8. How Your Entry May be Used

  1. Participating teams own the intellectual property of all code and materials that they create and submit as part of this contest.

  2. Participating teams should choose a license that states their ownership but grants The Organizer, Mentors and Judges permission to use, review, assess, test, and otherwise analyze your Entry and all its content in connection with the Event.

  3. Participating teams also grant The Organizer and Sponsors of the event permission to feature your Entry and all its content for promotional purposes (including, but not limited to, in advertisements, press releases, presentations, and trade shows) in all media, now known or later developed. You also agree to sign any necessary documentation that may be required for us and our designees to make use of the rights you granted.

  4. You acknowledge that we, other entrants or others may have developed or commissioned materials similar or identical to your Entry, and you waive any claims you may have resulting from any similarities to your Entry.

  5. You understand that we cannot control the information you disclose to us or our representatives in the course of participating in the Event, or what we or 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 participating in the Event, you agree that we may use any information in our representatives’ unaided memories in the development or deployment of our products or services without liability or compensation to you.

  6. You understand that you will not receive any compensation or credit from us for use (other than the award that you may receive according to the present terms) of your Entry in connection with this Event. This provision does not limit any compensation you may receive through us or third parties as a result of your use or marketing or profiting from the application beyond this Event or as provided in this agreement. We are not responsible for any unauthorized use of your Entry by those accessing or viewing your Entry.

  7. Please note that after the Event you and/or your Entry may be publicized in advertisements related to the Event. These advertisements may be distributed online and posted on our site or third-party websites.

  8. While we reserve the rights set forth above, we are not obligated to use your Entry for any purpose, even if it has been selected as a winning Entry.

  9. If you do not want to grant us these rights to your Entry, please do not enter this Event.

9. General Terms

  1. By registering and participating in the Event, you indicate your full and unconditional agreement to this agreement and other instructions related to the Event, as well as to our decisions regarding the Event, which are final and binding. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements in this agreement.

  2. We may modify any provision of this agreement, at any time, by posting an updated agreement at the Event Site and notifying all registered participants.

  3. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to disqualify any individual or team who fails or failed to comply with any provision of this agreement, cheats, tampers with the operation of the Event, or otherwise acts in a disruptive or inappropriate manner.

10. Privacy and Publicity

  1. Information you submit to us when you participate in the Event will be treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy. In addition, when you submit information on a website run by a third party in connection with this Event, your information may be used by that third party in accordance with its privacy policy. The Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://beamcollege.dev/privacy/

  2. You may be filmed or photographed while you are participating in the Event. Except where prohibited, by participating in the Event, you agree that we may use your name, likeness, photographs, audio-visual footage, comments, and any other record of your participation in the Event for promotional purposes at any time and in any media.

11. Licensing and Intellectual Property Rights

  1. Neither Software Guru nor the event sponsors claim any license or intellectual property rights in Participant’s submission, except for the limited license to review the submission as part of Hackathon judging and awarding of prizes.

12. Liability Release and Indemnity

  1. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL SOFTWARE GURU NOR THE EVENT SPONSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING IN ANY WAY TO THE HACKATHON AND/OR THIS AGREEMENT EXCEPT FOR FRAUD OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE. 1

13. Governing Law and Severability

  1. All disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or in connection with the Hackathon, prizes or the Agreement shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action.

  2. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States of America without regard to any conflict of laws, rules, and principles.

  3. If for any reason any provision of this Agreement is adjudicated to be unenforceable, that provision of the Agreement will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to effect the intent of the parties, and the remainder of this Agreement will continue in full force and effect.

14. External Sites and Resources

  1. The Event Site is available at https://beamcollege.dev