Conrad Challenge Rules and Regulations

Please read these Conrad Challenge Rules and Regulations in their entirety before registering for the Challenge. Your participation in the Conrad Challenge is subject to these Rules and Regulations and subject to the Terms and Conditions located on the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston website. If you do not agree to abide by the Rules and Regulations and the Terms and Conditions, you may not participate in the Conrad Challenge or receive the benefit of any services provided by the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston. The Conrad Challenge reserves the right to update these Rules and Regulations and the Terms and Conditions at any time and for any reason.

Team Eligibility and Requirements

1. Each Conrad Challenge team must consist of 2 to 5 students ages 13-18.

2. Teams must have one team coach, who is at least 18 years of age, to serve as an adult supervisor.

3. Teams must always consist of at least two team members. While team members may be removed, new members cannot be added once a team has submitted the Lean Canvas Stage.

4. The team’s idea must be original work that has been developed by the team as a group. The idea may include elements and components created by others if the proper credit is given.

5. Each team member and coach must read, understand, and abide by the Terms and Conditions and these competition Rules & Regulations. Registration of a team indicates the team’s and coach’s agreement to abide by all Rules and Regulations, including the Community Codes and Standards (detailed below).

6. The competition is open to international participants. It is the responsibility of international participants to make sure that their participation in the Conrad Challenge does not conflict with any rule or law of their country of residence.

7. Teams participating in the Challenge should be aware that the Foundation and Space Center Houston may charge fees to individual team members and teams to participate in certain aspects of the Conrad Challenge. This year, the fees to submit their content in Activation Stage and Lean Canvas Stage are FREE. Once teams progress to the Innovation Stage there is an Innovation Stage Entry Fee of $499/team. The Foundation and Space Center Houston offers discounts and waivers to these fees to qualifying students and teams. In addition, teams selected to advance to the Power Pitch stage and invited to attend the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit, and/or any accompanied Virtual Finals events, will be required to pay certain fees associated with registration, travel, and accommodations to attend.

8. Students who have competed in the past:

  • May compete again if they still meet the above eligibility and requirements.

  • Must have made significant advancements or changes to a product, if they are opting to submit an innovation like what was submitted in a previous year.

  • Must provide a complete disclosure of their prior Conrad Challenge participation as part of their Innovation Stage submission.

The Conrad Challenge reserves the right to disqualify a team at any point in the registration, submission, or judging process, if the team does not meet any of these rules, at the sole judgment and discretion of the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston.

Use of and Standards for Competition Submissions

This section refers to all elements submitted by the team for consideration of the Conrad Challenge. This includes but is not limited to, the Investor Pitch, team video, photos, and Business Plan.

1. All submissions must be in English.

2. All elements submitted by the team must be entirely the work of the student team members. Team coaches may guide the students but may not create any of the submitted elements or provide excessive influence on the concept design.

3. The submission and/or presentation may not disclose any confidential third-party intellectual property or violate any existing copyright protections.

4. Submissions may not copy or use other materials without properly citing the source. Proper citation includes the standard information of a scientific citation, including authors, publication source, dates, volume, pages, or URL information.

5. The basic information (team member names, team member pictures, team product, team location or school) for any teams completing the requirements for Innovation Stage (who are named Conrad Innovators) or named as Finalists will be posted publicly on the Conrad Challenge website and shared via social media.

6. It is the responsibility of each team to determine how much information about their concept is publicly disclosed. Please refer to “A Word About Confidentiality and Patents” in this document for more guidance. All United States-based Finalist teams will be required to file a Provisional Patent application as part of their participation in the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit or any other associated Virtual Finals events. There may be representatives of the press, sponsors, and other members of the public at these events, so all information shared in a group setting should be considered publicly disclosed.

7. The Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston reserves the right to use the basic information for the teams set out in point 5 above, and any other information, photos and videos provided by the teams as part of the Conrad Challenge, to promote the Conrad Challenge competition and Final events. Every person who participates in Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit or any other associated Virtual Finals events is deemed to have accepted and acknowledged the Image, Likeness and Voice Release set forth below.

8. The Conrad Challenge is sponsored by different companies and organizations that may be able to offer valuable benefits to the teams participating in the Conrad Challenge. The Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston may share a team’s contact information and Conrad Challenge submissions with a sponsor, in confidence, for the purpose of allowing the sponsor to contact the team regarding a potentially valuable benefit or service, or for the purpose of deciding whether to grant an award to the team. By submitting materials to the Conrad Challenge, teams give the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston permission to share their contact information, concept submissions, including their Business Plans and other technical submissions, with sponsors in confidence for this purpose.

9. The Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston can use all information provided by teams as part of the Conrad Challenge for internal purposes, including improving the Challenge, consulting with professional educators, and other legitimate internal purposes.

Community Code & Standards

As part of the Conrad Challenge, the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston has created and provided to Conrad Challenge participants various opportunities to interact with each other, and the Conrad Challenge staff (the “Services”). These include the Conrad Challenge website and Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston-sponsored social media and communication channels. As a condition of participation in the Conrad Challenge and using any of those Services, you agree to abide by these Community Codes and Standards. We reserve the right in our sole discretion to eject or ban any user from participating in the Conrad Challenge communication and social media communities to any who behaves in a manner deemed inappropriate or offensive, or who violates the guidelines of these Community Codes and Standards. The Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston and its partners and service providers are not responsible for any user-created content or other activities. All activity on the Site is also governed by the Site’s Terms of Service.

Honest Communication As a general matter, all contributions are expected to:

  • Be accurate (where they state facts)

  • Be genuinely held (where they state opinions)

  • Be respectfully stated

  • Be in compliance with applicable law in the United States and in any country from which they are posted or where they are directed

Respect Yourself and Others We require that all Conrad Challenge participants treat themselves and each other with respect.

  • Any use of the Services to threaten, harass, stalk or abuse others participating in these services is unacceptable and is strictly forbidden.

  • Posts that advocate or encourage expressions of violence, bullying, general cruelty, bigotry, racism, illegal activity, hatred or profanity are strictly forbidden.

  • Never use the Services to share or request any pictures or other content of a sexually suggestive or obscene nature.

  • Falsely impersonating a Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston or Conrad Challenge employee, agent, manager, host, or any other person other than yourself, is forbidden.

Protect Your Privacy

  • You should never share protected personal information (such as log-in credentials, passwords, social security numbers, credit card numbers and driver’s license numbers) online.

No-Discrimination Policy

  • The Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston is committed to creating inclusive communities, increasing diversity, lifting up oppressed and minority persons, fighting racism and the elimination of discrimination. The Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston prohibits discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, ancestry, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, gender identity or expression in all of its programs and activities.

No-Spam Policy

  • We prohibit the use of our Services to send “spam” or engage in off-topic discussion having no reasonable relationship to the Conrad Challenge. To spam includes sending identical and irrelevant submissions to multiple channels within the Service, including social media comments or groups within the Site. Usually, unwanted postings have nothing to do with the particular topic of the group or are of an inflammatory or provocative nature relating to topics not reasonably related to the Conrad Challenge and the mission of the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston. All spam or unrelated discussion will be deleted and the person who sent it may be ejected from the social media community and/or the Conrad Challenge.

SUBMISSION MATERIALS
I irrevocably authorize the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston, and its agents to (1) use, modify, reproduce, display, publish, and distribute these recordings in all forms of media for any purpose, including but not limited to websites, evaluation, publications, broadcasts, displays, social media, marketing and public relations, meetings, and any other medium.

I agree that my words, responses, or work may be used in the evaluation. Any evaluation reports will not include your name or any identifying information, but you may be quoted or an image of your work may appear. These reports may be shared with staff, stakeholders, and colleagues of Space Center Houston and Conrad Challenge.

A WORD ABOUT CONFIDENTIALITY AND PATENTS When you conceive, design and create an innovative product as part of the Conrad Challenge competition, you are creating intellectual property that belongs to you. When you start to work on your product, you should think about whether you want to try and protect your intellectual property through patents or confidentiality agreements. You may want to share your ideas with the public at large and decide not to seek any special legal protections for them. The choice is up to you. You should bear in mind, however, that venture capitalists and other investors usually consider whether the intellectual property in an innovative product has been kept confidential or claimed in a patent application, in deciding whether to invest in efforts to commercialize the product.

For this reason, the Conrad Challenge is asking all Innovation Stage judges to keep confidential any technical or business information they learn when reviewing work submitted by the teams. However, all information you present at the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit, or other associated Virtual Finals events is not considered confidential. These materials are intended to interest the public and potential investors in your ideas!

The Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston encourages all United States teams (and requires all Finalist teams invited to present at Summit or the Virtual Finals) to file a provisional patent application covering their product and including any important confidential details from their product documents before submitting any materials that may include their unique ideas and inventions. You can find information regarding the process and requirements for filing a patent application at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s website, www.uspto.gov. We also strongly encourage teams from countries outside the United States to file a patent application in accordance with the law of their home countries before presenting their inventions publicly.

If you have any questions about the value or procedures for filing a patent application, we encourage you to consult your own patent attorney or agent who can give you advice tailored to your product. Unfortunately, because of the number of submissions we receive, the Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston cannot provide you any specific advice regarding whether to file a patent application.

IMAGE, LIKENESS AND VOICE RELEASE

Should I attend the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit or other associated Finalist events, I authorize The Manned Space Flight Education Foundation (a nonprofit education foundation), DBA Space Center Houston, will use material from interviews, center events and educational programs for educational, promotional, evaluative, and internal purposes. 

 1. I hereby grant Space Center Houston, its agents, and affiliates, an irrevocable, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free right and license to photograph, videotape, audio record, televise, duplicate, and/or otherwise record my image, voice, and likeness as well as those of my children and property that I bring to Space Center Houston. I understand that Space Center Houston will own these recordings and images. 

2. I irrevocably authorize Space Center Houston and its agents to (1) use, modify, reproduce, display, publish, and distribute these recordings in all forms of media for any purpose, including but not limited to websites, evaluations, publications, broadcasts, displays, social media, marketing and public relations, meetings, and any other medium; (2) use my name in connection there with if Space Center Houston so chooses; (3) copyright the same in Space Center Houston’s own name. 

 3. I waive any right to inspect or approve these recordings or material that may be used with them now or in the future, whether that use is known to me or not. 

 4. I release Space Center Houston, its regents, employees, and agents from all liability arising out of the use of these recordings, including but not limited to any claims arising out of my right of privacy or right of publicity; any claims based on any distortions, optical illusions, or faculty mechanical productions; or any physical damage to tangible property or bodily injuries and death arising out of Space Center Houston’s use of these recordings. 

 5. I understand that Space Center Houston will own all rights to these recordings, and I will not be compensated for any use of these recordings. 

 6. l have not granted any person or entity any exclusive rights in or to these recordings or my name, and there are no restrictions on the use of the recordings or my name. 

7. I hereby warrant that I am of full age and have the right to contract in my own name/for the minor in the above regard. I understand that this is a legal document and represent that I have read it and understand it and am signing it voluntarily. I understand that this Image Release Form contains the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof. This release shall be binding upon me and my heirs, legal representatives and assigns. 

CONSENT AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AGREEMENT

I have read the following “Rules and Regulations” document in its entirety before registering with the Conrad Challenge. If I register for the Conrad Challenge or other Conrad Foundation and Space Center Houston services online, then my registration shall be deemed to be my acceptance of these Rules and Regulations and the associated Terms and Conditions and shall be deemed my signature and agreement. If I am under 18 years of age, then my registration shall be deemed to have the consent and permission of my parent or guardian and shall be deemed to be the signature and agreement of such parent or guardian.