GENERAL RULES

• There is no fee for entry.
• Submissions may be entered by individuals or teams. Teams may be 2-4 participants.
• Each team must have at least one currently registered MIT student (Undergraduate, Graduate, etc).
• MIT students must register with their @mit.edu email address.
• Required events must be attended by at least one MIT student on each team. Team members who are not MIT students are also encouraged to attend, but at least one MIT student per team is required to attend.
• Teams must disclose any funding already received at the time of registration.
• The Judging Panel reserves the right to disqualify any entry.
• By signing up, you agree to a photo release. Please contact the team for exceptions.

Teams are encouraged to ask on sight administrators, mentors, and staff from the MIT community for advice, especially regarding feasibility!

PRIZEs

• Equal shares of any prize money won will be paid to each individual on a winning team.
• The individual recipients of prize money will be responsible for the tax implications of their winnings.

Semi Finalists

• First Place - $300
• Second Place - $150
• Third Place - $75

BetterMIT Best in Category

• $1000 grant towards BetterMIT project

Pitching

Semi-Finals - Sunday February 24th

All teams will participate in the semi-final judging round starting Sunday at 12pm.

The pitch consists of a brief 3-4 minute pitch and Q&A from our volunteer judges - 5 minutes total per team. Teams should come prepared with necessary materials to explain their ideas. HDMI will be available. See Evaluation Criteria section below for more details.

Teams receiving the highest scores in their category will move on to the final pitching round. The teams with the top 3 numerical scores on Sunday will also receive prize money. All semi finalists and honorable mentions will be invited to present at the Stata Expo on Tuesday.

Finals - Monday February 25th (tentative)

Pitch your ideas to Chancellor Barnhart, Vice-Chancellor Waitz, and Director Kirkbride from MindHandHeart! The best team in each category has a chance to receive $1000 towards their project and BetterMIT Best in Category Title. The $1000 would be managed and distributed by the BetterMIT Team as we provide support to teams seeking to execute their ideas. This date is subject to change.

Honorable Mentions

In the spirit of the college of computing kickoff, we encourage students to pursue holistic applications of computing as problem solutions. Projects with exceptional use of computing will be deemed honorable mentions and given the chance to participate in the College of Computing Stata Expo on Tuesday February 26th if they so wish along with semi-finalists.

Evaluation Criteria

Pitches will be evaluated out of 50 points total as follows.

Potential Impact (out of 10)

• Does it seem likely to be frequently used in our community? By an entire student population (Undergraduates or Graduates)? Is it scalable?

Problem Complexity and Comprehension (out of 5)

• Do the creators thoroughly understand the problem they are trying to address? Give more points for successfully breaking down more complex problems.

Technical Feasibility (15)

• Did they take advantage of appropriate/related services? Did they miss one that could be beneficial? Does the project show rigorous foresight, planning, and attention to detail?

Novelty and Creativity (10)

• Does the project address all aspects of the problem? Does it circumvent traditional limitations?

Presentation (out of 5)

• How prepared were the participants to present? Was it easy to comprehend? did they include visual aids if needed?

Bonus (out of 5)