All projects must be submitted on the HCC APPATHON DEVPOST website by Saturday 3:00 pm (CST) November 14th, 2020. 

There is no team size limit, but all team members must be enrolled at Houston Community College at the time of submission.

All participants are subject to the Code of Conduct signed upon registration to the hackathon.

CODE OF CONDUCT

APPATHON@HCC is a community student hackathon intended for collaboration and learning in the student community. We value the participation of each member of the student community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout the hackathon. To make clear what is expected, all attendees and speakers at this hackathon are required to conform to the following Code of Conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event.

We believe that every single person has the right to hack in a safe and welcoming environment. All Appathon@HCC Participants agree to:

  • Be considerate in speech and actions, and actively seek to acknowledge and respect the boundaries of fellow attendees.
  • Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech.

Harassment includes but is not limited to offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. If what you’re doing is making someone feel uncomfortable, that counts as harassment and is enough reason to stop doing it. Be careful and mindful of the words that you choose. Remember that exclusionary comments and hacks can be offensive to those around you.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Sponsors, judges, mentors, volunteers, organizers, and anyone else at the event are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, attendees should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material both in their hacks and during the event. Staff (including volunteers and sponsor representatives) should not use sexualized clothing/ uniforms/costumes or otherwise create a sexualized environment.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, Appathon@HCC organizers may take any action HCC Police deems appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please report the incident using the procedures below. Appathon@HCC representatives will be happy to help participants contact campus security or local law enforcement, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event.

Social Rules

We are also adopting social rules based on the Recurse Center’s User Manual. These are guidelines for making expected behavior more well-defined. Few people are unkind or annoying to others on purpose, so these social rules help us all to avoid behaviors harmful to a supportive, productive, and fun learning environment.

  • No feigning surprise - Acting surprised when people don’t know something often makes them feel bad and has zero educational benefits.
  • No well-actually’s - A well-actually is when someone explains something in a mostly- correct manner and another person interjects with a minor/irrelevant correction that derails the discussion without helping or clarifying significantly.
  • No back-seat driving - Lobbing advice across tables or intermittently
    injecting yourself into conversations is a distracting interruption. We encourage helping each other out - pair programming is one of the best ways to work and learn - but that means only giving advice when it is wanted, and engaging in active discussions rather than passive tips.
  • No subtle -isms - Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other kinds of bias are harmful, even if subtle or unintended. Subtle -isms are small things that make others feel uncomfortable, things that we all can sometimes do by mistake. For example, saying “It’s so easy my grandmother could do it” is an instance of subtle sexism (not to mention ageism) and should be avoided.

If someone violates these social rules, feel free to point it out to that person, or report it to our volunteers or organizers. If you are the one responsible for breaking a social rule, apologize, and move forward. Multiple violations of these rules may result in a warning, and extremely sustained, repeated, or willful violations may result in expulsion from the hackathon.

Reporting Procedures

If you feel uncomfortable or think there may be a potential violation of the code of conduct, please report it immediately at the front desk or by notifying the Appathon@HCC Organizers:

FINE PRINT:
Please read the instructions carefully and stay within the guidelines. HCC reserves the right to disqualify any miscategorized or incomplete entries.

NOTES: If you are selected as a winner and awarded cash prizes and/or an internship and/or access to an accelerator program, please be aware that you are responsible for making the necessary arrangements to commence the opportunity in a timely manner. Once you start your opportunity it is understood that you will abide by the terms and conditions of the program as required by your host organization.

Furthermore, by participating in the competition you agree to release and hold HCC, its officers, directors, employees, agents, and contractors harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, and actions of any kind (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) in connection with or resulting from, participation in the competition including—without limitation—personal injuries, death, property damages and any claims by third parties or otherwise based on publicity rights, defamation, copyright, trademark, invasion of privacy or other violations of law relating to your participation in the competition or its opportunities.