Challenge Rules

COMPETITION OFFICIAL RULES

PLEASE READ THESE OFFICIAL RULES CAREFULLY. ENTRY INTO THIS COMPETITION CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY PART OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THIS CHALLENGE.

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. Competition Description

   • To help you "Get Started" we have a starter kit available for each of these problems. We hope they are helpful; if you find any bugs, typos, or improvements, please send us a pull request.
   • This Challenge will be run in accordance with these Official Rules ("Rules").

2. Sponsors The Competition is organized by AICrowd SA, EPFL Innovation Park, Bâtiment C, c/o Fondation EPFL Innovation Park, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, referred to as “Organizers'' collectively from here on. Third parties may provide sponsorship to cover running costs, prizes and compute grants. These third parties will be known as “Sponsors”. CityLearn Challenge 2023 has the MERL sponsoring the leaderboard prizes, and Amazon sponsoring compute credits.

3. Organizers Admins

   “Organizers Admins” are any companies or organizations authorized by Organizers to aid them with the administration, sponsorship or execution of this Challenge including but not limited to AICrowd SA.

4. Eligibility

   You may enter this challenge individually or as a team of two or more members ("Team"). You are eligible to enter this Challenge if you (and each member of your Team) meet all of the following requirements as of the time and date of entry:

   • You are an individual;
   • You are 16 years of age or older but in no event less than the age of majority in your place of residence; and
   • You have internet access, an email account, and access to a personal computer.

   The organizers will not be able to transfer the prize money to accounts of participants who reside in any of the following countries or regions. (Please note that residents of these countries or regions are still allowed to participate in the Challenge, but no prize money will be available.)

   • Russia
   • The Crimea region of Ukraine
   • Cuba
   • Iran
   • North Korea
   • Sudan
   • Syria
   • Quebec, Canada
   • Brazil
   • Italy

   Please Note: it is entirely your responsibility to review and understand your employer's and country's policies about your eligibility to participate in this Challenge. If you participate in violation of your employer's or country's policies, you and your entry may be disqualified from the Challenge. The organizers disclaim any and all liability or responsibility with respect to disputes arising between an employer and such employer's employee or between a country and its resident in relation to the Challenge.

5. Competition Start and End Dates

   • Start date: 21 August 2023, 12:00 UTC
   • End date: 31 October 2023, 12:00 UTC

6. Prizes

   • Top three teams or participants on the Phase II leaderboard of both the control or load forecast track will receive the following prizes:

     • Control Track

       • 1st Prize: 1000 USD
       • 2nd Prize: 800 USD
       • 3rd Prize: 700 USD

     • Load Forecast Track

       • 1st Prize: 1000 USD
       • 2nd Prize: 800 USD
       • 3rd Prize: 700 USD

   • The top 3 teams in both tracks will also be invited to co-author an academic publication.

   • To be eligible for the prizes, participants will have to release the code to their solutions under an open-source license of their choice. The submitted code is expected to be reproducible and should produce the same score on the leaderboard.

   • The winning participants will have to provide a valid and unexpired ID card or passport which AIcrowd will use only for the purpose of verifying the individual's identity in case of transferring the cash prize and for internal record keeping.

   • Any and all prize(s) is(are) non transferable. All taxes, fees and expenses associated with participation in the Challenge or receipt and use of a prize are the sole responsibility of the Prize Winner(s). No substitution of prize or transfer/assignment of prize to others or request for the cash equivalent by winners is permitted. Acceptance of prize constitutes permission for AIcrowd to use winner’s name and entry for purposes of advertising and trade without further compensation unless prohibited by law.

   • The participation of the Organizers and Organizer Admins, its employees and its affiliates, parents, agents, representatives, advertising and promotional agencies and members of the immediate family (parents, children or siblings) of these employees or any person with whom they are domiciled, are permitted to participate in the challenge but will not be eligible to win the cash prize.

7. Is the Entry an Eligible Entry?

   To be eligible to be considered for a prize, as solely determined by the Organizers:

   The Entry MUST:

   • be compatible with the official submission format;
   • Be self-contained and function without a dependency on any external services and network access
   • be in English;
   • be the Team’s own original work;
   • not have been submitted previously in any promotion of any kind;
   • not contain material or content that: is inappropriate, indecent, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, pornographic, hateful, tortious, defamatory, or slanderous or libelous; or promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age; or promotes alcohol, illegal drugs, or tobacco; or violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to rights of privacy, publicity, or their intellectual property rights; or is inconsistent with the message, brand, or image of Organizers, is unlawful; or is in violation of or contrary to the laws or regulations of any jurisdiction in which the Entry is created; and

   The Team members MUST:

   • designate one person as the team leader who will be solely responsible for receiving communications from and communicating with Sponsor;
   • ensure the Team has obtained any and all consents, approvals, or licenses required for submission of the Entry;
   • obtain any consents necessary from all members of the Team with respect to the sharing of such member’s personal information as outlined herein;
   • obtain the agreement of all members of the Team to these Rules;
   • not generate the Entry by any means which violate these Rules, - the Organizers Terms of Service or the Organizers Privacy Policy;
   • not engage in false, fraudulent, or deceptive acts at any phase during participation in the Challenge; and
   • not tamper or abuse any aspect of this Challenge.

   The Team members MUST:

   • ensure the Team has obtained any and all consents, approvals, or licenses required for submission of the Entry;
   • obtain any consents necessary from all members of the Team with - respect to the sharing of such member’s personal information as outlined herein;
   • obtain the agreement of all members of the Team to these Rules;
   • not generate the Entry by any means which violate these Rules, - the Sponsor’s Terms of Service or the Sponsor’s Privacy Policy;
   • not engage in false, fraudulent, or deceptive acts at any phase during participation in the Challenge; and
   • not tamper or abuse any aspect of this Challenge.

8. Disqualification

   If you, any Team member, or the Entry is found to be ineligible for any reason, including but not limited to conflicts within Teams and noncompliance with these Rules, Organizers and Organizers Affiliates reserve the right to disqualify the Entry and/or you and/or your Team members from this Challenge and any other contest or promotional activity sponsored or administered in any way by the Organizers. A participant is not allowed to create more than one account to participate in the challenge. Violating this will result in disqualification from the challenge. Participants should not attempt to get around the limited number of submissions during the test phase by entering several teams into the competition. Participants should only be associated with one Entry. If two teams have overlap in number of participants, or if the organizers deem two entries to be effectively similar modulo small changes, they reserve the right to disqualify both teams. If a participating team does not receive the Prizes for any of the above-mentioned reasons, the prizes will be offered to the next eligible team on the final leaderboard.

9. How may the Entry potentially be used?

   The Entry may be used in a few different ways. Organizers do not claim to own your Team’s Entry, however, by submitting the Entry you and each member of your Team:

   hereby grants to Organizers a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, world-wide right and license to review and analyze the Entry in relation to this Challenge; hereby grants to Organizers a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, world-wide right and license to trajectory data generated from evaluation of the Entry, to be used in a report submitted to NeurIPS after the competition has ended, and possibly released as an open-source dataset; agrees that each member will execute any necessary paperwork for Organizers and Organizers Admins to use the rights and licenses granted hereunder; acknowledges and agrees that the Team will not be compensated and may not be credited (at Organizer’s sole discretion) for the use of the Entry as described in these Rules; acknowledges that the Organizers may have developed or commissioned materials similar to the Entry and waive any claims resulting from any similarities to the Entry; understand and acknowledge that, subject to provision of Prizes, Organizers are not obligated to use the Entry in any way, even if the Entry is selected as a winning Entry.

   Personal data you submit in relation to this Challenge will be used by Organizers in accordance with Section 20 of these Rules.

10. How will Winners be Selected and Notified?

A list of all winners of this Challenge will be posted on AIcrowd Site and may be announced at Organizers' discretion via Organizers' Twitter, Facebook, Blog, or Website, or at an Organizer or Organizer, Admins sponsored or hosted event.

11. Your Odds of Winning

ODDS OF WINNING A PRIZE ARE SUBJECT TO THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE ENTRIES RECEIVED AND HOW YOUR ENTRY SCORES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE JUDGING CRITERIA.

12. When will prizes be awarded?

The prizes will be awarded within a commercially reasonable time frame to the designated Team Leader unless otherwise agreed to by Team Leader, remaining Team members and Organizer. All members of a Team may be required to complete and sign additional documentation, such as non-disclosures, representations and warranties, liability and publicity releases (unless prohibited by applicable law), and tax documents, or other similar documentation in the manner and within the timeframe specified by Organizer in order for the potentially winning team to claim the prize. Organizers will in no way be involved in any dispute with respect to receipt of a prize by any other members of a Team, including, without limitation, division of the prize value among Team members. Winners are responsible for any tax liability that may result from receipt of any prize.

Only prizes claimed in accordance with these Rules will be awarded.

13. Your Personal Data and Privacy

    Organizers may use cookies and/or collect IP addresses for the purpose of implementing or exercising its rights or obligations under the Rules, for information purposes, identifying your location, including without limitation for the purpose of redirecting you to the appropriate geographic website, if applicable, or for any other lawful purpose in accordance with the AIcrowd Privacy Policy.

    Organizers may use the personal data you provide via your participation in this Challenge:

    • to contact you in relation to the Challenge;
    • to confirm the details of your Entry;
    • to administer and execute this Challenge, including sharing it with Organizer Admins;
    • at Organizers’ discretion, to credit you and/or your Team for the Entry, identify you and/or your Team as a Winner, or other similar notice; and
    • as otherwise noted in these Rules or as necessary for Organizers to meet their obligations under these Rules or applicable law.

    Organizers only require name and email address to be submitted for you to participate in this Challenge for its uses as outlined in this Section 19. Please read the AIcrowd Terms and Conditions, Participation Terms carefully to understand how your data may be used by AIcrowd SA.

14. Additional Terms and Conditions

    • The organizer reserves the right to amend the Rules and timeline without giving prior notification or any reasons thereof.
    • In case of conflicts, the decision of the Organizers will be final and binding.
    • Violation of the rules or other unfair activity may result in disqualification.
    • By participating in the Challenge, each Participant agrees that: (1) any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or in connection with the Challenge, or any prize awarded, shall be resolved individually without resort to any form of class action; and under no circumstances will a Participant be permitted to obtain any award for, and each Participant hereby waives all rights to claim, punitive, incidental or consequential damages and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased and any other damages.
    • If there is a conflict between these Official rules and the AIcrowd Terms of use, the Aicrowd Terms of use will govern.