FAQ

ENTRY RULES

QUALIFICATION PROCESS

PEOPLE’S CHOICE VOTING

PAGE VIEWS

GENERAL INFORMATION



ENTRY RULES

Can I enter a patented or patent-pending idea in this year's contest?

Yes. You may wish to indicate patent status in the check-off box provided on the Entry Form.

I am not ready to disclose my idea on the public website. Can I still enter the contest?

No. All submissions are considered NON-CONFIDENTIAL. For more information refer to the Rules page.

Do I lose ownership of my idea once I enter it in the contest?

No. Per the Rules, the entrant retains ownership of the idea. There is absolutely NO transfer of ownership of the intellectual property. Keysight receives a license to copy and display your submissions in its marketing materials. For more information refer to the Rules page.

Can I enter the contest if I reside outside the United States?

Yes. However, eligibility to win prizes is restricted to countries (and states) which do not outlaw a contest with the prize value offered by this contest. For more information about eligible countries, you can refer to the Rules page.

Can I enter the contest with a description shorter than 850 words or a video pitch that’s less than 2 minutes?

Yes. However, the more complete your entry description and video, the better your chance of winning. Your visual materials will also improve your chance of winning. Your entry description should explain your design idea and cover how the design works, what makes it innovative, how it would be produced, and what its potential impact would be around the globe. If the description is too short and does not cover these points, it will be disqualified. Your video pitch should include your design idea, how your proposed idea works, how it addresses the challenge of either unhealthy urban living or water stress, and why you think it should win.

How do you count words? My word count doesn't look as expected.

The word counter checks for spaces between words. You should paste your text from a plain text format (such as Notepad) to reduce the risk of invisible characters that inflate the word count. Because of issues with text from other document formats, we allow a small buffer of 15 words before we reject more text in the text input form.

Are entry ideas developed by a team or group eligible to compete?

Yes. The entry should be submitted by the team or group leader whom you designate, and this person should be listed in the “Entrant Name” field. Where prompted on the Entry Form, list all other members of the team.

Can students from different universities or colleges enter as one team?

Yes, a team can be comprised of students from different universities or colleges, provided that all of the schools are in countries that are eligible to participate per the Rules.

What is the maximum number of members in a team?

Each team can comprise a maximum of 6 members. Each team member must register for their own account. The team leader should submit the entry form for the entire team. All team members must be listed in the entry form.

Can I enter the contest without providing image(s) to illustrate my entry?

No. At least one image is required to accompany the text. This could be a drawing, diagram, photo, or any other visual aid to help the judges. The illustration(s) must complement the descriptive text. A generic photo or photo of the entrant will be rejected. Entries without any associated images will be disqualified. The image(s) must be uploaded and submitted electronically with the Entry Form.

I would like to submit more than one image. Can I do that?

Yes. You can upload up to three separate images when submitting your entry.

Can I mail supplemental materials to support my entry?

No. We cannot accept any materials by mail or email. We can only accept the text, illustration(s), and video when you complete your Entry Form online.

How many ideas or designs can I submit?

Each entrant or entry team can submit a maximum of 2 entries per innovation track (category), but each entry must be a substantially different design idea. Identical or very similar ideas in multiple categories, from the same entrant or entry team, will be disqualified.

If the idea incorporates complex electronics, is it necessary to create drawings at the microcircuit level, or simply give an idea of what the mechanism would be designed to do?

The image(s) submitted with your entry are intended to help the judges understand and visualize the design concept and thus, should support your text description. They can be as detailed or simple as you choose. The judges will be technical professionals, so schematics, specifications, and other details should be meaningful in helping to convey the completeness of your entry, but they are not required.

Is it possible to include photos of a prototype model in my contest submission?

Yes. Any type of image, including photos of prototypes, can be submitted, provided they are in one of the valid image formats indicated on the Entry Form.

Are any prototypes required?

No, you aren’t required to have a working prototype, but during the final competition at the World Maker Faire, finalists are expected to bring with them and effectively present some form of demonstrative evidence. Demonstrative evidence can include a working prototype, but could also include computer animations or models, scale models, samples or other items that can be used to make the entry “real” for the judges.  If you do have a prototype ready for the online competition, you should indicate this on the Entry Form where asked.

Can I submit a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file?

No. Written entries should be submitted via the Entry Form. Illustrations can be submitted together with the Entry Form in the following formats: GIF, JPEG, or PNG.

Are there file size limitations for illustrations?

We do not specify limitations because entrants may not be familiar with the practical and technical constraints of displaying images on a website. When each entry is received our web team resizes and/or optimizes the images if necessary, to make them easily and clearly viewed by the site's visitors and judges. If you are comfortable doing this yourself then a rough guideline would be for images to be under 200kb and no more than 1000 x 800 pixels. Of course, this guideline cannot always be met (e.g., when text labels become illegible), so some images will require more resolution or less compression. All images are displayed as low-resolution thumbnails until clicked so this does not hurt overall performance.

Can I enter a design for an existing commercial product?

No, products currently on the market are not eligible.

When trying to submit my entry, I received an error message "File extension not allowed!"

That is most likely because you attempted to submit an illustration in a file type we do not accept. File type options include GIF, JPEG, or PNG.

 

QUALIFICATION PROCESS

What does "qualification" mean?

Qualification is a pre-filter on entries to verify they meet the contest requirements as described in the Rules. Administrators will screen out inappropriate or incomplete entries before the judges receive the entries.

My entry was declared "unqualified." Can I fix it?

You may fix it by signing in, deleting the old entry, and re-entering. Entries cannot be edited after submission and qualification review. The most common reasons for disqualifying entries are: 1) no illustration provided; 2) illustrations submitted in an unacceptable format and/or with an excessive amount of text in the illustration; 3) entry description exceeds the maximum word count; 4) video exceeds 2 minutes. An entry may also be disqualified if deemed frivolous by the administrators.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE VOTING

How does voting work?

To vote for your favorite entry or entries, you must first register. After you register, you log in using your password and will then have the option of casting one vote per entry. You can also post comments or questions about entries. Voting takes place on the Entries description page.

Can I vote if I entered the contest? Can I vote if I didn't enter the contest?

Yes, voting is possible for both contest entrants and visitors to the site. Entrants should use their existing email login and password and do not need to re-register to vote. Please tell other people to vote! The more votes cast, the more reliable the results will be. This portion of the overall score will be determined by how many votes each entry receives online.

How long do I have to cast my votes?

Voting will begin on April 5 and as soon as the first entry is posted live. Voting will continue until June 20, 2019, 11:59 pm EDT.

What impact does the popular vote have on the judging for the Grand Prize or Innovation Track prizes?

People’s Choice voting accounts for 10% of the entrants’ overall score for the online competition. This score is combined with the score determined by an independent panel of judges using predefined judging criteria (see the Rules). Both scores are used to determine the top six individuals or teams that will advance to the final competition at the World Maker Faire.

Judging that takes place at the final competition will be done by a different independent panel of judges using a different set of criteria defined in the Rules.

Why do I need to register to vote on entries?

We require voter registration to ensure a fair voting process: one vote per entry per person. This information is not shared or published. It should take less than a minute to register, and then you can vote on as many different entries as you would like once you log in.

PAGE VIEWS

Why do entry page view numbers matter?

One of the options for contest website visitors is to sort the published entries by number of page views. Those with higher numbers will appear first and potentially garner more interest and votes.

How do I increase my entry's page views?

Some ideas for bringing your page some traffic: Post your entry on your social media blogs and social media sites. Use interesting tags that attract attention (e.g., #KeysightIoTChallenge, #IoT, #STEM, etc.), but please make them relevant or the site administrators may adjust these for you. Make sure the first few sentences of your published full entry or summary are interesting and grab the casual site visitor. Include a striking image. Your log files should show evidence of referral traffic to keep to the spirit of this competition, otherwise your entry may be subject to manual page view adjustment by the contest administrators. You may be asked to provide evidence of public web referrers at any time by the administrators.

What are unacceptable forms of entry promotion? What if I do something you don't find acceptable?

Unacceptable forms of self-promotion include posting your entry in public forums where it is not relevant to the discussion topic; using generic visuals that do not make clear that you are linking to a specific contest entry; using the contest logo or other visuals from the contest site for your personal advertisement purposes. Use of bots and repeated reloading over extended periods of time is also unacceptable. Forms of advertisement that lead to email complaints about entry promotion being “off-topic” in forums/groups/mailing lists/sites will be investigated by the site administrators. Contestants who use these methods may have their entries hidden from public view on the site.

If I hide my entry, and then publish it again, do I keep my previous page views?

Yes. Your previous page view count will be maintained, unless your entry has been subject to manual page view adjustment due to suspicious activity.

How are you measuring page views for the most visited entries?

We are tracking based on both time of visit and visitor. We have an algorithm that looks for views by unique human visitors within a time window. Any numbers that appear to be suspect or the result of an automated process may be subject to manual review and may be adjusted for accuracy at any time by the contest administrators. You may be challenged at any time to provide evidence of public page referrers on other web sites, to account for your page view count.

Why don't my page views increase automatically when I load my own page?

We update the entry page view statistics several times a day from a database, so you won't see updates on every page load. We also screen for repeat visits by the same person.

Do views of my uploaded image file count towards page views?

No, only views of your full entry details page are counted.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Does the use of Keysight products influence the selection of winning entries?

No. Winning entries will be selected by an independent panel of judges based solely on the predefined judging criteria. For more information, refer to the Rules page.

Can I still win if I’m not an engineering student?

Yes. Entries from graduate and undergraduate students and teams with appropriate knowledge and experience in the subject matter are encouraged to compete. Any student who will be graduating prior to the completion of the contest on September 21, 2019 is also welcome to participate.

I found something offensive on the site or in an entry. Can you please do something about it?

If you see something that is offensive, contact the contest administrators. We will review it as soon as possible. If you have any other questions about the contest, please contact the contest administrators

Can I copy entries I find?

You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way copyrighted or other materials without obtaining the prior written consent of the copyright owner of such materials. Keysight may terminate an account, deny access to the contest site, or remove any entrant who is alleged to have infringed the copyright or proprietary rights of another.

What if I find my copyrighted material in another’s entry or elsewhere on the site?

Pursuant to Title 17 of the United States Code, Section 512, Keysight has implemented procedures for receiving written notification of claimed copyright infringement and for processing such claims in accordance with the law. If you believe your copyright or other intellectual property right is being infringed by a user of an Keysight website, please send a notification of the claimed infringement to the following contact:

DMCA Notice Agent c/o CT Corporation System
1015 15th Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington DC 20005
Email: cls-ctwashingtondcfulfillment@wolterskluwer.com

Your notification must: (a) contain your physical or electronic signature; (b) identify the copyrighted work or other intellectual property alleged to have been infringed; (c) identify the allegedly infringing material in a sufficiently precise manner to allow Keysight to locate that material; (d) contain adequate information by which Keysight can contact you (including postal address, telephone number, and email address); (e) contain a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted material or other intellectual property is not authorized by the owner, the owner's agent or the law; (f) contain a statement that the information in the email is accurate; and (g) contain a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright or other intellectual property right owner.