HUAWEI 2024 Munich Tech Arena 

(the “Challenge”)

CHALLENGE RULES

(the “Rules”)

This Challenge is sponsored by Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH, Hansaallee 205, 40549 Duesseldorf, Germany (hereinafter called the “Sponsor” and / or “Huawei” which expression shall where the context so admits or requires, include all subsidiary companies, all associated companies and all business units which are part of the group owned by the parent company, Huawei Technologies Co., Limited, China and all servants, agents, contractors, service providers and advisors operating at the request of Huawei).

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

1. TERM

This year’s online Challenge registration for Individual Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) begins on September 30, 2024, and registration ends on November 10, 2024, at 23:59 Central European Time (UTC+2).

The Challenge involves Phase 1 online Challenge and Phase 2 The On-site Award Event. he Challenge will be accessible 24 hours a day on the dedicated Challenge website operated by AGORIZE (“Agorize”) at https://huawei.agorize.com/en/challenges/techarena-munich2024  (the “Challenge website”)(the website is still not launched now, the information is needed for modify), subject to possible IT maintenance operations. Dates and times in these Rules refer to Central European Time (UTC+2).

2. AGREEING TO THE RULES

Any eligible person, who is registered on the Challenge website and enrolls 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 enrollment 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, Huawei must receive your completed registration by November 10, 2024, at 23:59h Central European Time (UTC+2).

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.

Refusing collection, recording, use and/or disclosure of a Participant’s personal data that is strictly necessary in relation to the Challenge will result in the Participant’s disqualification. The Participant is solely responsible for the information he/she provides when registering. Any intentional or unintentional mistake, anomaly or inconsistency, regarding this information, may result in the Participant’s disqualification. The Sponsor reserves the right to conduct all necessary verifications regarding the information submitted during registration on the Challenge website, including but not limited to the Participant’s identity, postal and/or email address.

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 obtain any compensation.

Registration for and participation in the Challenge is free.

4. ELIGIBILITY

This Challenge is open and offered to any fulltime students (Bachelor, Master, or PhD) enrolled in a university course in the field of IT, computer science, mathematics, engineering, physics or similar areas, or fresh graduates (up to 3 years), aged at least eighteen (18) years and with full legal capacity. Each eligible individual can only participate in the Challenge as part of one (1) team submitting one (1) entry only.

All the documents that will 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 employees and representatives of the Sponsor and Agorize, and the family members of such employees and representatives.

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

5. PURPOSE OF THE CHALLENGE AND PARTICIPATION

Participation in the Challenge must be as a team.

• Participants shall form a team of 1 to 5 students maximum (“Team”). Each Team member must accept these Rules, by clicking a hyperlink through the Agorize interface. The Sponsor may disqualify any Team if one or more member have not accepted or breach these Rules.

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 submissions (the “Brief”). The Brief includes information regarding various deadlines, details of the prizes, Sponsor’s requirements etc.. The Brief is accessible through the Challenge website.

6. SUBMISSIONS

During Phase 1 participants will be asked to provide their codebase (allowed language in C, C++, Python or Java)

The codebase will need to be uploaded in specific formats that are stated in the program FAQ and on the participation form. The code needs to produce the expected output as described in the problem description/challenge Brief for each challenge. Participants should also submit a technical document of up to 2 pages (excluding references) describing the methodology, any extra data and pre-existing tools, software and models used.

The submission limit for the codebase is set to 3 submissions per day during Phase 1.

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

A submission shall satisfy the following requirements:

• The submission shall only consist of and incorporate original work / contributions from a Team;
• Where necessary, if content from a third party has been used in the development of the submission, all rights, authorizations and agreements necessary to submit the submission, and any grants/ licenses in respect thereof, have been obtained. A submission in breach of the foregoing will result in the disqualification of the submission and the related Participants;
• No other individual and/or entity is entitled to claim any rights from the use of the submission;
• The content of the submission 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 submissions suspected of the foregoing infringements or violations will be ineligible.

The objective is to develop method to synthesize/reconstruct HRTFs based on pictures of the person’s ears.

Provided input:

A dataset of 2D pinna images and corresponding individual HRTFs from SONICOM are provided as default option (Ref 1):

• HRTFs are in SOFA format
• HRTFs are all minimum-phase, as ITD is not considered in this contest
• For each subject, a collection of 2D pictures of left/right pinna from different views is provided.
• Additional datasets can also be used for training

Expected output:

• A model which takes a set of 2D pinna images as input and reproduces the HRTFs (same format as the HRTF in the dataset provided) of the person as output.
• The source code of the algorithm as well as a report describing the used acquisition method and results.

Evaluation:

The performance on this task is evaluated objectively according to Critical-Band Mean Squared Error (CB) [Ref 2]：

where nBins=129. Participants can define train/validation split. Final ranking will be obtained using a hidden test set.

[Ref 1].: I. Engel, R. Daugintis, T. Vicente, A. O. T. Hogg, J. Pauwels, A. J. Tournier and L. Picinali; The SONICOM HRTF Dataset, in J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 241–253, 2023.

[Ref 2].: R. Nicol, V. Lemaire, A. Bondu, S. Busson; Looking for a relevant similarity criterion for HRTF clustering: A comparative study, in 120th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Paris, France, May 20–23, 2006

Participants are responsible for and shall bear all costs and expenses associated with preparing and submitting submissions. Participants assume all risks for damaged, lost, late, incomplete, invalid, incorrect or misdirected submissions. If a Participant does not upload any submission results on the Challenge website before the deadline, this will be considered as withdrawal from the Challenge. The Participant will be withdrawn from the Challenge without any rights to obtain a compensation from the Sponsor.

7. CHALLENGE PROCESS

Challenge Phases. The Challenge consists of two Phases:

Phase 1 Online Challenge

From September 30, 2024 until November 20, 2024.

During phase 1, all participants need to submit their solution according to the following evaluation criteria:

• Ability to create a model to take a set of 2D pinna images as input and to reproduce the HRTFs (same format as the HRTF in the dataset provided) of the person as output.
• The score is calculated objectively taking the “Critical-Band Mean Squared Error” into account.

The ranking rule is the higher the score, the higher the ranking. If the scores are the same, then it is ranked according to the first submission.

Phase 2. The On-site Award Event

The Final Event consists of a 1-day on-site event in Munich, Germany. The exact date of the final event is yet to be determined. It will take place one day from December 12, 2024 until December 18th, 2024. The specific date and time for the awards ceremony shall be communicated to the winning teams via email by November 30.

Participants who are selected to attend the final event will be directly notified by email at the address provided after the result release. 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 compensation from the Sponsor.

The Sponsor may assist in travel costs if requested by the Participants, in particular for those living outside the Munich region.

During this On-site Final Round, participants will have the opportunity to work in person with their Teams at the venue. Food and drinks will be provided. Mentors will also be present during the event to support the participating Teams.

At the end of the On-site Final Phase, an oral presentation of the project will be made by the top 6 Teams. Participants are required to upload submissions to the Challenge website before the start of the Final Event.

Participants must prepare and present a submission in the Final Round which meets the specifications set out in Section 6 and which include:

Ability to explain and motivate your solution design and your algorithm, your results, and the business impact of your work.

Each Team will have 20 minutes (10 for the presentation and 10 for Q&A).

SELECTION CRITERIA

Submissions will be judged according to the Brief. The source codes in your submissions (where applicable) may be uploaded to third-party platforms to be assessed by the Sponsor. 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, sexual orientation, etc. are considered.

The Teams that present a solution that responds best to the Challenge Brief, in the required format and within the stated timelines, will be selected by the panel of experts nominated by the Sponsor. Team submissions are ranked automatically by score. If two submissions have the same score, the earlier submission will be ranked first.

The ranking at the end of Round 1 and Round 2 remains preliminary. The panel of experts will review code submissions to produce the final ranking and will disqualify submissions that try to cheat or otherwise break the rules.

The maximum number of Participants selected during Phase 1 is 30.

• NOTIFICATION TO PARTICIPANTS

Once selection has been completed, Participants will be notified by email, phone, or by other means of the results of each Round. 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.

 8. PRIZES

The prizes are awarded to the winners of the Challenge in compliance with these Rules.

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

A total of EUR18,000 is in the prize pool:

• Grand Prize: A cash reward of EUR 6,000 will be awarded to the first-place team (one team will be selected).
• Second Place Prize: A cash reward of EUR 3,000 will be awarded to each of the two second-place teams (two teams will be selected).
• Third Place Prize: A cash reward of EUR 2,000 will be awarded to each of the three third-place teams (three teams will be selected).

• Outstanding Award: Four Teams will have the opportunity to receive the Outstanding Award, the reward for which is yet to be determined. Huawei will not be responsible for the distribution of the Outstanding Award among the winning teams; the Outstanding Awards will be awarded directly to the winning teams during the awards ceremony. 

• Certificates of Participation: All winners will receive a paper and electronic copy of the winning certificate, and the top 6 teams will receive corresponding certificates.
• A total of six Teams will have the opportunity to win a 3-6 month paid internship at Huawei which could be remote or on-site. Participants will need to pay all the costs and expenses.
• In addition to the Team Prizes, the Sponsor/Huawei reserves the right at its sole discretion, to offer one or more Participants and / or Teams a special invitation to visit Huawei Headquarter Campus, based in Shenzen, China subject to travel visa and confirmation of travel dates, and any other additional terms and conditions which Huawei may stipulate, as part of the special invitation. Huawei will pay for the flight costs to China and the accommodation.

 

In the event a winning Team cannot be contacted, by email or by phone, for more than three (3) months, the Participants of the Team 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.

All winning Participants must accept the Prize “as it is”. The Sponsor expressly disclaims any warranty regarding the Prizes.

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 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.

9. COMMUNICATION

Each Participant acknowledges and consents that the Sponsor may, throughout Europe and for the duration of the Challenge and for a period of three (3) years following the Final Phase, use the Challenge and his/her respective submissions (including any personal data relating thereto) for publicity, including for the Sponsor’s advertising or other marketing 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.

In general, when you use our services, such as HUAWEI CLOUD, your personal data shall be processed in accordance with the respective privacy statement in these Rules.

In particular, you consent to the use, collection, and/or disclosure, by the Sponsor and/or by Agorize, of your details and personal data submitted during registration for the Challenge and/or obtained by the Sponsor and/or Agorize during the entire course of the Challenge, including but not limited to your name and surname, your city and region of residence, the name of the institution in which you studied or in which you obtained your diplomas/degrees and other biographical information, your image, your bank details (if you are a winner), and any other personal data that you submit with your submissions as well as the content of your submissions relating to the Challenge, for the purposes (i) set out in these Rules; and (ii) those relating to the organization, operation, and implementation of the Challenge by the Sponsor, its officers, employees, and/or agents, and Agorize.

As a non-exhaustive example, each Participant authorizes the Sponsor and/or Agorize to use the photographs or video recordings taken during the Challenge to disseminate them via any communication medium.

Such use does not entitle the winning Participant to any other payment apart from the Prize he/she received.

10. CONFIDENTIALITY

The Sponsor has no obligation to any Participant to keep the information contained in the submissions confidential. When submitting any submissions, the Participant understands, agrees and accepts that any information contained therein may be publicly disclosed by the Sponsor.

If you are a Prize winner, the Sponsor may request that you sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement for the purpose of entering into negotiations regarding further development of your project, as embodied in your submission(s). Such confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement will relate to your submission(s) and all intellectual property that it/they may contain.

Furthermore, 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 submission.

Each Participant recognizes 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.

11. 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 know-how), 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 is created or held by the Participants before the start date of the Challenge and which is not related in any way to, or not created 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.

 

Warranty of non-infringement. When submitting any deliverable, at any stage of the Challenge, each Participant warrants and guarantees to Sponsor that he/she is the owner/co-owner and/or holder/co-holder of the Intellectual Property Rights regarding all or part of the Creations contained in the deliverables submitted at any stage of the Challenge, and that he/she has obtained all rights, permissions and/or licences regarding all Previous Rights and any elements of the deliverables used for the purpose of submission of the project during the Challenge, for which he/she does not hold the relevant rights.

Each Participant further warrants and guarantees that (i) his/her contribution is original and unprecedented and to the extent his/her deliverable incorporates the Intellectual Property Rights of third parties, the relevant rights, permissions and/or licenses have been obtained in accordance with the foregoing paragraph; (ii) it does not infringe upon the copyright or any Intellectual Property Rights of any third party; (iii) all the elements of his/her submissions in the Challenge, as well as all pieces of contributions and information communicated in the submission presentation documents are accurate, reliable and complete; and (iv) the submission of the relevant deliverables does not constitute an act of unfair competition of any kind.

It is compulsory for all Participants to indicate the source of Previous Rights of whichever nature that are included in any submitted deliverable.

Use of Intellectual Property Rights in Creations 

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 Previous Rights as neccessary for a period of three (3) years following the Final Phase of the Challenge, on the following terms:

• The license is non-exclusive, worldwide, transferable within the Sponsor’s group of entities and royalty free.
• The license 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,
• Previous Rights 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.

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

Update of the Rules. The Sponsor reserves the right to amend these Rules as necessary at any time without prior notice to Participants. Participants are encouraged to consult these Rules regularly.

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 stay in force within the limits of the law.

Challenge Cancellation or Suspension. The Sponsor reserves the right in its discretion to (i) cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Challenge 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.

13. 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 in sending of any emails by the Participants 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 his/her violation of these Rules.

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 disturbance, action, claim, opposition and demand or eviction attempt from any third party in connection with any Creation in the deliverables (Intellectual Property Rights included), whether in relation to any infringement or otherwise.

14. ETHICS – ANTI BRIBERY

Huawei has a “zero-tolerance” policy as regards bribery and trading in influence. Huawei will comply in all respects with all applicable anti-bribery and trading in influence laws and regulations, in each of the countries in which Huawei trades, operates or undertakes any other activity. You agree to:

- comply with applicable law and other rules relating to fair trade, trade of influence, and anti-corruption (which shall include without limitation, not making any offer of any form of payment, gift or other form of inducement, reward or advantage, charitable donations, facilitation payments, and/or political contributions (whether of money or anything of value to Huawei, any of Huawei’s agents, representatives, affiliates or persons employed by or acting on behalf of Huawei, any customers or potential customers of Huawei, any public or government officials or employees, public international organizations, political parties, or private individuals or other entities);

- ensure that all the files, information, data, written and oral representation or promise provided by yourself shall be true, accurate, complete and not misleading;

- support Huawei in the building of trust and integrity, reject any solicitation for bribes during daily business cooperation and make a complaint to Huawei’s Business Control Department if there is any related misbehavior (via Complaint channel: E-mail: alertehuaweimunich@huawei.com

15. APPLICABLE LAW AND DISPUTES RESOLUTION

The Challenge, these Rules and any action related thereto shall be governed by the laws of Germany.

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/conciliation prior to any legal proceedings. The party wishing to initiate discussion/conciliation shall inform the other party by means of a registered letter with acknowledgment 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/conciliation, the parties hereby agree to submit all disputes arising from the Challenge or under these Rules to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Munich.

16. PRIVACY NOTICE