Competition Rules
Eligibility:
- The INFORMS OR & Analytics Student Team Competition is open to students enrolled in undergraduate and master’s degree programs anywhere in the world.
- Teams may be made up of exclusively undergraduate or exclusively master’s level students, or a mix.
- Teams should be at least 3 people, with no greater than 10 members.
- Team members may be enrolled in any type of degree program.
- There is no limit on the number of entries from one course, program or school.
- A team may be made up of students from multiple universities. These may be universities in a single country or universities in multiple countries.
- Team members must be enrolled as students during the time period of the competition. Students who graduate in December 2017 who participated on the team during 2017 can still be considered team members after graduation.
- While we encourage INFORMS members to participate, membership in INFORMS is not required for the 2018 competition.
Role of Advisor:
A faculty member or PhD student may serve as advisor to student teams, with the understanding that the primary work is done by the students. Advisors should not be involved in setting the direction of the analysis or in the analysis itself. It is not necessary for a team to have an advisor to be eligible.
Awards:
Monetary awards will be granted to up to 8 finalist teams. Award values for the 2018 competition are: First Prize - $7,500; Second Prize - $5,000; Third Prize - $3,500; Fourth Prize - $1,500; Second Prize - $1,000; Honorable Mention (three prizes) - $500.
Winners will also receive award certificates for each team member and for the school. In addition, each finalist team will receive a $2,500 stipend to offset the cost of travel for team members who present at the INFORMS Business Analytics Conference. Conference registration will be provided for up to 5 student members per finalist team.
Judging:
INFORMS will be responsible for judging and selecting the winners. The Title Sponsor shall only have access to information necessary to assist in evaluation of entries.
In the event that submissions of sufficient quality are not submitted to justify the awarding of all prizes, the award committee reserves the right to eliminate any or all of the prize levels.
All decisions of the award committee are final. The awards will be made in U.S. Dollars. All currency exchange costs are the responsibility of the winners.
Other Rules:
Awards may be subject to taxes depending on the winners’ countries. Winners are responsible to comply with all tax requirements.
INFORMS shall have the right to use, modify and make available to the public the submitted idea for the purposes of judging, advertising, promotion, administration, testing and demonstration.
Intellectual property rights to the contest submission, if any, will be the property of the participant. The participant must grant to Principal a license to publish, distribute and use the work product. Teams selected as finalists will be required to submit the computer code they used in their solution.
Participants agree that personal data collected by INFORMS may be stored and displayed to the public within the context of the competition.
Participants represent and warrant that they have the right to submit their idea to the competition, that they are the sole and exclusive owner of the idea, and that the idea or submission of the idea does not violate any applicable law in any country.
Participants represent and warrant that they will not submit any idea that infringes on any third-party intellectual property, trade secret or confidentiality obligation.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, each participant indemnifies and agrees to keep indemnified INFORMS and the 2018 Title Sponsor, their affiliates, agents, directors, officers, employees, representatives and assigns harmless from and against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages and costs resulting from any act, default or omission of the participant and/or a breach or any warranty set forth herein.
To the extent permitted by law the rules, terms and conditions for the contest are governed by the laws of Maryland.