US ISRAEL BUSINESS COUNCIL
ALTROUTE STUDENTS PRIZE COMPETITION
OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE THE CHANCE OF BEING SELECTED AS AN ALTROUTE PRIZE AWARD RECIPIENT.
VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW.
1. THE ALTROUTE PRIZE COMPETITION:
The U.S. Israel Business Council, Inc. (the “Sponsor”) is conducting a competition (the “AltRoute Competition”) in which groups comprised of students (each such student, a “Participant”) enrolled in Eligible Universities (a “Competing Team”) will compete for certain prizes, as provided in Section 8 of these Official Rules. The Competition is conducted in cooperation with, and the funding is provided by, the Fuel Choice Initiative, a program created by the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.
2. ELIGIBILITY:
a. To be eligible for consideration for an AltRoute Prize, a Competing Team must complete and submit the Materials as specified in Section 5 hereof, agree to these Official Rules, and meets the following criteria: (i) a Competing Team must be comprised of up to four graduate students who need not be U.S. citizens, enrolled in either a business school, environmental studies programs, policy making programs, engineering or other fields across the sustainable development, transportation and business nexus, (ii) each Competing Team must be comprised of at least one MBA enrolled student from an accredited US university (an “Eligible University”), and at least half of the Competing Team’s members must be enrolled in an Eligible University at the time of the competition (Eligible University’s alumni that graduated after May, 2012 may be part of a Competing Team); and (iii) each Competing Team must nominate a leader (a “Team Leader”) who shall be an individual, at least 18 years old and enrolled in an Eligible University. Such Team Leader will be the authorized representative of his or her Competing Team at the time of nomination. To be considered eligible to participate in the AltRoute Competition, each Competing Teams must be available to attend the final ceremonial event which is scheduled to take place in New York City on September 20, 2015. Travel costs will be covered by the Sponsor and will include transportation to New York City and accommodation for one night for Competing Team members who do not reside in the New York Metropolitan Area, up to the aggregate amount of $500 per a Competing Team member (flight and hotel combined). Sponsor shall determine whether a Competing Team shall travel by train or via coach airfare based on distance from the Competing Team’s Eligible University to New York City. In general, if a Competing Team is located more than 200 miles from New York City, such Competing Team’s members shall be entitled to air fare. Competing Team’s members who choose to drive to New York City will be reimbursed according to IRS announces new mileage reimbursement rates for 2015, as stated in this link. All expenses shall be subject to Sponsor’s pre-approval and reimbursement shall only be made after the submission of receipts reasonably evidencing the incurrence of any expense. All receipts or other evidence of the incurrence of expenses must be submitted within fourteen (14) days of incurrence thereof.
b. Employees (and their immediate families, i.e., parents, spouse, children, siblings, grandparents, step parents, step children and step siblings) of Sponsor, and its advertising or promotional agencies, and other agents, as well as the immediate family members and household members of such employees are not eligible to be part of a Competing Team. The AltRoute Competition is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Participation constitutes each Participant’s full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and Sponsor’s decisions which are final and binding in all matters related to the AltRoute Competition.
Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
3. ALTROUTE COMPETITION PERIOD:
a. The enrolment for the AltRoute Competition begins on April 1, 2015 and ends on May 15th, 2015 (the “Enrolment Period”). During the Enrolment Period, each Competing Team must submit properly filled enrolment forms to meet the Submission Criteria, as such Submission Criteria are set forth in this link. Submissions are completed by filling forms as set forth is this link.
b. Acceptance/rejection notification letters will be sent out by May 25, 2015.
c. The 10 selected semi-final Competing Teams will submit their final work by August 16, 2015.
d. Ceremonial event, Competing Teams’ presentations and AltRoute Prize announcements will take place in New York City on September 20, 2015.
4. ENROLLMENT:
a. Competing Team will be enrolled in the AltRoute Competition by a Team Leader. To nominate a Competing Team, please enter this link.
i. Read the Official Rules;
ii. Complete all required fields on the online application;
iii. Submit a short description ( not to exceed 700 words) of proposed strategy/plan for your research – as more fully specified in the “Call for Proposals: USI Prize Competition.” Please see the complete Call in this link; and
iv. Submit a written biography for each Competing Team member.
5. PARTICIPATION IN THE COMPETITION; ALTROUTE COMPETITION PHASES; SUBMITTED MATERIALS:
a. Limit one (1) submission per Competing Team.
b. Each Competing Team member can be part of no more than one Competing Team.
c. The AltRoute Competition shall be comprised of two phases:
i. Phase I: Planning and Proposing — Competing Teams will submit written proposals of no more than two pages in length. The Judging Committee will then select 10 Competing Teams to research, develop, and work with a selected company or entity on the identified problem and proposed solution; and.
ii. Phase II: Working and Presenting — the 10 selected Competing Teams will have three (3) months to develop plans, work with their chosen company or entity and finalize their strategies. The Judging Committee will evaluate the strategies based on creativity and analytical rigor as well as on quantities of fuel and pollution to be reduced by the proposed action plan. Feasibility, capability of being replicable and applicability of the plan, economic soundness and collaboration across disciplines are highly important.
iii. The 10 Competing Teams will be invited to New York City to deliver their final presentation at a conference scheduled to take place on September 20, 2015. Each Competing Team will get the opportunity to present their ideas and engage with leading scholars and professionals in conversations about the energy challenge.
d. Submitted materials (both Submitted Proposals in Phase I and Final submissions in Phase II, the “Submitted Materials”) must meet the following criteria:
i. Submitted Materials must be accurate, truthful and complete;
ii. Submitted Materials shall not promote any particular political agenda or message;
iii. Submitted Materials cannot contain misrepresentations or disparaging remarks about other people, products or entities;
iv. Submitted Materials cannot contain the logos, trademarks, trade names, service marks or trade dress of any third party without permission;
v. Submitted Materials cannot contain copyrighted materials owned by any third party (including photographs and other works of art or images published on or in any media, such as websites, television, movies) without permission; and
vi. Submitted Materials cannot depict, and cannot themselves, be in violation of any law.
e. In Submitted Materials, each Competing Team agrees, confirms and represents that he/she/it has not, and to his/her/its knowledge, no one else has, directly or indirectly participated in or engaged in any activity in connection with this submission process that: (i) may, or is likely to, harm or create a risk of physical or mental harm, injury or distress to any person, entity or property; (ii) may, or is likely to, create a risk of any other loss or damage to person, entity or property; (iii) is or may constitute a crime or tortuous activity; (iv) is, or is likely to be considered as, a violation of the rights of any other person or entity; or (v) violates any of the terms or conditions of these Official Rules.
f. Each Team Leader hereby agrees to submit their Submitted Materials under the following terms and conditions: (a) that they have received the Competing Team’s permission to submit the Proposed Materials (b) that all physical materials submitted become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned; (c) that all materials submitted are free from any lien or claim by anyone, including, but not limited to any union, guild or performance rights society; (d) that Leader teams have obtained all rights, permissions and licenses necessary for the Sponsor to use the Submitted Materials for any non-commercial purpose; (e) that no Submitted Materials, or any part thereof, infringe any trademark or copyright or otherwise violate any third party’s rights, including but not limited to any third party’s rights of privacy or publicity; (f) that description of the Competing Team and the materials provided in connection with the Submitted Materials is the original work of such Competing Team and such Competing Team has all rights necessary to submit such materials and have them become part of the AltRoute Competition; (g) that the Competing Team has obtained permission from each person whose name, image, likeness or voice is used in the Submitted Materials; and (h) that publication of the Submitted Materials through various media, including but not limited to web posting, will not infringe on the rights of any third party.
g. The Competing Teams shall have no right of approval, no claim of compensation and no claim (including, without limitation, claims based on invasion of privacy, defamation or right of publicity) arising out of any use, blurring, alteration, or use in composite form of their name, picture, likeness, biographical information or materials.
h. By accepting recognition in the AltRoute Competition, each Competing Team shall abide by, and be bound by, these Official Rules and the decisions of the AltRoute Judging Committee, which are final.
i. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any Competing Team found tampering with or otherwise abusing any aspect of the AltRoute Competition as solely determined by Sponsor.
j. Plagiarism of any kind is strictly forbidden. Permission from content owner and references where appropriate must include all necessary citations for the team to be eligible for monetary prizes.
k. All the information submitted as part of the competition must be factual and not hypothetical.
6. THE SELECTION PROCESS/JUDGING:
a. The Sponsor will select a panel of judges (the “Judging Committee”) who will review the Submitted Materials (the proposals in Phase I and the final submissions in Phase II).
b. Judging Criteria –
i. The winning Competing Team will have to demonstrate the greatest forecasted reduction or replacement of petroleum usage and emissions (percentage of reduction) while maintaining competitiveness of the entity that would be utilizing their proposed strategy. Consideration will also be given to energy efficiency and overall benefit to the environment. The developed strategy should show feasibility, applicability and one that can be replicable to other companies and locations
ii. The work will be judged also for creativity and analytical rigor, economic soundness and collaboration across disciplines.
iii. Precision with data and technological understanding and clarity of plans for testing the suggested plans/hypotheses will also grant points to the work.
iv. The multi-dimensional facet of the suggested plans is greatly important. This not only attests to the team’s ability to collaborate across disciplines but is crucially affecting the feasibility of the suggested solution.
v. The quality of the Competing Team’s presentation in the ceremonial event.
c. The Judging Committee will vote on and select a group of 10 Competing Teams to be designates as Semi-Finalists. The 10 Competing Teams who receive the most votes from the Judges will become Semi-Finalists. The selection of Semi-Finalists will be announced on or about May 25, 2015. Semi-Finalists will be notified of their selection by email. Written feedback might be provided by Sponsor for the 10 selected Competing Teams by the Judging Committee as part of the selection notification. This feedback will not affect final selection in any way and needs to be perceived as guidelines.
d. The ten selected Competing Teams will be then judged by an extended judging committee and finalized during the Ceremonial events after the teams’ presentations. All judging decisions are final and not subject to appeal.
e. Three AltRoute Prizes will be awarded to three Competing Teams, selected from the group of Semi-Finalists.
7. INFORMATION PAGE PROFILES.
Sponsor will create an information page profile for each team on Sponsor’s website (“Information Page Profile”) which will contain information obtained from the Submitted Materials. The materials on such entity’s Information Page Profile will remain on Sponsor’s website throughout the remainder of the AltRoute Competition.
8. PRIZE:
a. AltRoute Prize Recipients: The three finalists selected by the Judging Committee shall receive the following prizes:
i. First place, a cash prize of $10,000;
ii. Second place, a cash prize of $6,000;
iii. Third place, a cash prize of $3,000, and
iv. Another cash prize of $1,000 will go to the best Competing Team’s presentation during the Ceremonial Event.
((i) through (iv), an “AltRoute Prize”)
b. Subject to the approval of the office of the Prime Minister of Israel, the first place winning Competing Team may additionally be given the opportunity to travel to Israel to the annual Fuel Choice Summit in November 2015 for a week-long Energy and Transportation focused study tour. The Sponsor shall inform the winning Competing Team of the terms and conditions of such opportunity and any reimbursement of expenses to be offered to the winning Competing Team.
A Team Leader may waive a Competing Team’s right to receive an AltRoute Prize. The AltRoute Prizes are non-assignable and nontransferable. No substitutions may be made by the prize recipient. All AltRoute Prizes will be given to the Team Leader to be distributed amongst the Competing Team members. All members of the Competing Team are solely responsible for reporting and payment of any taxes on any prize. Prize recipients may be required, as instructed by Sponsor, to complete and sign (i) an affidavit of eligibility/liability certifying that such Competing Team has complied with the Official Rules of the AltRoute Competition, and (ii) a liability and publicity release (except where prohibited by law). Failure to sign and return any of these documents or to comply with any term or condition of these Official Rules may result in a disqualification, the forfeiture of any AltRoute Prize, and, at Sponsor’s discretion, the presentation of the prize to a substitute recipient. Except where prohibited, participation in the AltRoute Competition constitutes each Competing Team members’ consent to the publication of her/his/its name, Eligible University information, picture in any media for any commercial or promotional purpose (including, without limitation, the Internet), without further compensation. A prize not won and/or claimed by a recipient in accordance with these Official Rules will not be awarded and will remain the property of Sponsor.
9. DISQUALIFICATION:
Should Sponsor determine, in its sole discretion, that any Competing Team has violated any of the prohibitions contained in these Official Rules, Sponsor shall have no obligation to award any Prize to such Competing Team. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any Competing Team it finds to be tampering with the entry process or this competition; to be acting in violation of these Official Rules; or to be acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.
10. GENERAL RELEASE/LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:
By participating in the AltRoute Competition, each Competing Team member releases and holds Sponsor and its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and successor companies and each of their sponsors, advertising or promotions agencies, providers of services to any Competing Team, and each of their directors, officers, employees, representatives, partners and/or agents harmless from and against any claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the Competition or with the acceptance, possession, use of or defect in any Award (including, without limitation, claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages related to personal injuries, death, damage to, loss or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light) to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Sponsor is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by technical or human error or otherwise which may occur in connection with this AltRoute Competition. Sponsor will not be responsible for typographical, printing or other errors in these Official Rules or in other materials relating to the Competition. To the greatest extent permitted by applicable law, Sponsor is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims any liability arising from: (i) the use of any information obtained from third parties, or from any error, defect, omission, theft, destruction or alteration of, or unauthorized access to, Competition entries; (ii) any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access to the Sponsor’s website; (iii) technical, network, electronic, computer, hardware or software failures of any kind; and/or (iv) injury or damage to any Participant or to any other person, or to the Participant’s (or other person’s) computer, other equipment, relating to or resulting from participation in the competitions, or from downloading materials or accessing the competition.
If for any reason, the AltRoute Competition is not capable of running as planned, including but not limited to by reason of fraud, computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, technical limitations or failures, human error, mistake or any other cause that in the sole opinion of Sponsor could compromise, undermine, corrupt or otherwise affect the security, integrity, fairness, administration, or proper conduct of this competition, Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the AltRoute Competition.
Notwithstanding anything set forth above, to the extent that the preceding release is determined by a tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or void for any reason, each Competing Team agrees that, to the fullest extent permitted by law (i) any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or in connection with the Competition, or any awards awarded shall be resolved through arbitration, individually, and without resort to any form of class action; (ii) any claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred by such Participant, but in no event attorney’s fees; and (iii) under no circumstances will any Participant be permitted to obtain any award for, and Participant hereby waives all rights to claim, incidental, punitive or consequential damages.
11. CONSTRUCTION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION:
The construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, and all issues and questions relating thereto, along with the rights and obligations of all Competing Teams and of Sponsor, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions. In the event that any provision is determined to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable, such determination shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision, and these Official Rules shall be construed in accordance with their terms as if the invalid or unenforceable provision was not contained therein. Sponsor shall have the authority, from time to time, to amend, modify or supplement these Official Rules or waive any provisions or requirements hereof.
Any specific waiver of any obligation hereunder by Sponsor does not constitute a general waiver of that obligation nor of any other obligation of Participant.
Any dispute concerning this AltRoute Competition shall be submitted to binding arbitration in New York within one (1) year from the date that the cause of action arose (or, if multiple cause of actions are involved, from the date that the first cause of action arose), with such arbitration conducted pursuant to the then prevailing rules of the American Arbitration Association. To the fullest extent permitted by law, no arbitration brought pursuant to these Official Rules shall be joined to any other arbitration initiated pursuant to these Official Rules.
12. COPYRIGHT:
By participating in this AltRoute Competition, Participant grants to Sponsor (and any and all of its agents and affiliates and assigns) an exclusive, assignable, royalty-free and irrevocable right and license to edit or otherwise use their Submitted Materials and any other materials submitted in connection with the Awards Program, in whole or in part, for any purpose and in any manner or media (including, without limitation, the Internet) now known or hereafter devised, throughout the world in perpetuity, and to license others to do so, without notice and without compensation, royalty, accounting, liability or obligation of any kind to any Participant. Each Participant further agrees that it will use its best efforts to have its employees, consultants, volunteers, officers and directors sign any additional licenses or releases that Sponsor may require. Each Participant further agrees that Participant will sign any additional license or release that Sponsor may require and will not publicly display any submission made by such Participant in connection with the AltRoute Competition without the express written permission of Sponsor.
BY SUBMITTING SUBMISSION MATERIALS, COMPETING TEAMS ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE SUBMISSION MATERIALS, AND ANY OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED IN CONNECTION WITH THIS COMPETITION, MAY BE POSTED ON THE SPONSOR’S WEBSITE(S), IN SPONSOR’S DISCRETION. Sponsor reserves the right to edit the Submission Materials and other materials prior to posting them to the website.
SUBMISSION MATERIALS AND OTHER MATERIALS POSTED TO THE WEBSITE EXPRESS THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL COMPETING TEAMS, AND DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF SPONSOR.
13. PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Information collected from Competing Teams on Sponsor’s website is subject to Sponsor’s privacy policy.
14. AWARD RECIPIENTS’ LIST:
The name of the Alt.Routr Prize recipients may be obtained during the six (6) month period following the date after the Competition closes, by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address set forth below:
U.S. Israel Business Council
205 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017