TOTAL PRIZES AVAILABLE:

• Best overall model: $12,000

• Best segmentation model: $4,000

• Best clustering model: $4,000

• Best transfer learning model: $4,000

• Best visualizations/deployment: $1,000

ONE REGISTRATION PER PARTICIPANT

Participants cannot join the Competition using multiple email addresses. Participants found to be using multiple email addresses will be disqualified.  If you and others wish to form a team for this competition, please see the “Teams” section below. 

SUBMISSION LIMITS

Participants may submit as many times as they wish but only the latest submitted model per category will be assessed. 

COMPETITION TIMELINE

Start Date: September 13, 2023

End Date (Final Submission Deadline): October 13, 2023 

Prize Announcement Date: November 10, 2023

ADDITIONAL RULES

Competitions are open to residents of the United States and worldwide, except for Restricted Parties. Refer to the Terms and Conditions and check your local laws to ensure you are eligible.

Participants must be the older of 18 years old or the age of majority in the country of residence.

Xeek reserves the right to award alternative prizes if necessary to comply with local laws.

If for any reason the Competition is not running as planned, Xeek reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Competition. Xeek further reserves the right to disqualify any participant who tampers with the submission process, Competition deliverables, or otherwise tries to undermine the operation of the Competition.

Under no circumstances should the submission of an entry or award of a prize be construed as an offer or contract of employment with Xeek or its affiliated companies.

Additional Terms and Conditions apply.

SHELL Xeek “Stranger Sections: Segmenting Mysterious Objects Through the Microscope” Challenge Terms & Conditions

Participants in the Xeek “Stranger Sections: Segmenting Mysterious Objects Through the Microscope” Challenge (the “Competition”) are bound by the following Terms and Conditions, so please read carefully before going on.

1. Introduction

a) The Competition is a global competition organized by Studio X LLC, a company incorporated under the laws of Delaware with registered number 7805821 and registered office at The Corporation Trust Company, Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, New Castle, DE, 19801, United States (the “Promoter”), which asks Participants to develop a model that segments images into component parts with Python.

b) The Competition is accessed via www.xeek.ai (the “Competition Website”).

c) The Competition Period begins September 13th, 2023 at 13:00 UTC and will close October 13th, 2023 at 23:00 UTC.

d) By registering as a Participant, you confirm that you have read and unconditionally agree to all of these Terms and Conditions and that you accept any and all of the Promoter’s decisions regarding the Competition as final and binding in all respects. This does not affect your statutory rights.

e) The Competition is not a formal part of the Shell USA recruitment process and participation in the Competition will not influence any subsequent application made by a Participant for a job, apprenticeship, internship or other training scheme with the Promoter or any of its Affiliates (the “Shell Group”). As the Competition is part of the Promoter’s general recruitment activities, participants in the Competition will automatically be entered into Promoter’s database to be contacted in respect of the Promoter’s other recruitment activities.

For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions, “Affiliate(s) means a party’s ultimate parent company or a legal entity which the party or the party’s ultimate parent company directly or indirectly, through one or more intermediaries, controls. For this purpose: (i) a company is directly controlled by another company or companies if that latter company beneficially owns or those latter companies together beneficially own fifty per cent (50%) or more of the voting rights attached to the issued share capital of the first mentioned company; and (ii) a company is indirectly controlled by another company or companies if a series of companies can be specified, beginning with that latter company or companies and ending with the first mentioned company, so related that each company of the series (except the latter company or companies) is directly controlled by one or more of the companies earlier in the series.

f) An “Individual Participant” means a person who enters the Competition as a sole individual whereas a “Team Participant” means a person who enters the Competition as part of a team. Individual Participants and Team Participants are together referred to as “Participants”.

 2. Restrictions on the Export of Technical Information

a) United States – The U.S. government regulates the export of certain technical data and information from the U.S. along with the release of technical data and information to foreign nationals located in the U.S. Participants submitting Submissions (as defined in clause 7) containing technical details of regulated technology must ensure that the subject technology is not controlled under U.S. export control laws. Participants should seek independent legal advice for assistance in this determination.

b) Rest of world – Participants must ensure that their Submissions comply with their jurisdiction’s equivalent or similar export regulations. Participants should seek independent legal advice for assistance in this determination.

c) By entering Submissions, Participants certify that any technical information contained in their Submissions is not restricted for export to the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland or the Netherlands.

 3. Eligibility

Participation in the Competition is open to any person who is, or will be, the higher of  (i) 18 years of age or (ii) the age of majority in the Participant’s relevant jurisdiction of residency, by September 13, 2023 (“Interested Parties”), subject to the following limitations and the provisions of these Terms and Conditions:

a) Competitions are open to residents of the United States and worldwide, except for Restricted Parties. Interested Parties should check local laws to ensure they are eligible.

b) Current employees, past employees, apprentices, trainees, interns, agents, officers, contractors or directors of the Promoter and its Affiliates (including joint ventures) as well as families of such persons are not eligible to participate in the Competition.

c) For the avoidance of doubt, Participants who are in the process of being recruited for a job, apprenticeship, traineeship, or internship by the Promoter or any of its Affiliates (including joint ventures) will be automatically disqualified if their employment, apprenticeship, traineeship or internship commences any time during the Competition Period.

d) The Competition is not open to employees, agents, affiliates, officers, contractors or directors of any advertiser, promotion agency or fulfillment agency of the Promoter or of anyone else professionally connected with the Competition.

e) Interested Parties are not eligible to enter the Competition if they are resident in a country or jurisdiction where the Competition may breach any law or regulation. Where this applies, the Promoter’s invitation to enter the Competition in such country/jurisdiction is withdrawn.

 4. Registration

a) Interested Parties wishing to participate in the Competition must each register online on the Competition Website regardless of whether they wish to enter the Competition as an Individual Participant or as a Team Participant.

b) An Interested Party may only register for entry into the Competition once. An Interested Party may only participate in the Competition either as an Individual Participant or as a Team Participant but not as both.

c) Participants cannot join the Competition using multiple email addresses or names.

d) The registration period for participating in the Competition is listed on xeek.ai (the “Registration Period”). Internet access is required.

e) All Participants must provide a valid email address as part of the registration process. Participants are responsible for updating their email address if it changes during the Competition Period.

f) The Promoter reserves the right to check the validity of the registration information submitted by a Participant at any stage during the Competition and to ask for evidence of country of residency or other information cited by the Participant.

g) The Promoter also reserves the right to refuse participation, or to disqualify, at any time during the Competition, Participants who have submitted incorrect or misleading information.  Participants who do not comply with these Terms and Conditions may also be disqualified from the Competition without further notice.

h) Participants will have no recourse against disqualification decisions.

i) Any Participant not correctly registered by the given deadline will not be able to participate further in the Competition.

j) For the avoidance of doubt, all times mentioned in these Terms and Conditions and related materials are based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

5. Teams

a) During registration, an Individual Participant can invite other Interested Parties to form a team (a “Team”). To form a team, each user must select “Opt-In” on the Teams tab for the challenge.  Then the Team Captain can search and invite each member.  Each member must accept the invitation.

b) Changes to the composition of a Team can be made using the options in Teams tab.

c) Each Team must appoint a main contact person (the “Team Captain”) and inform the Emails sent by the Promoter to the email address provided by the Team Captain will be considered delivered to each Team Participant.

6. The Competition Calendar

a) The timeline for the Competition is as follows:

• Start Date: September 13th, 2023 at 13:00 UTC

• End Date (Final Submission Deadline): October 13th, 2023 at 23:00 UTC. 

b) The Promoter may send additional information to Participants during the course of any Competition. In this case, this information will be sent to all Participants at the same time.

7. Submissions, Scoring and Selection of the Winners

a) Each Individual Participant/Team will be required to submit their Submissions via the Competition Website.

b) Submissions must be in English and will be void if they are incomplete, damaged, altered, counterfeit, or late.

c) Submissions are scored by a panel of Xeek judges.  There will be no Predictive leaderboard for this challenge. 

d) Prize Winners will be notified by email. If a Winner does not respond to the notification attempt within one week or does not wish to receive the prize, another Participant may be selected.  Promoter is not required to distribute all or any part of a prize declined by a Winner.

e) Submissions may not be libelous, offensive, obscene or in violation of intellectual property rights or rights of privacy or publicity and the Promoter reserves the right to disqualify an Individual Participant/Team if a Submission or any part thereof falls under one of these categories.

f) The Promoter may share any Submissions submitted by Participants via the Competition Website to any company within the Shell Group and other third parties involved in the operation, evaluation or judging of the Competition including, for the avoidance of doubt, for marketing and communications purposes.

8. Correspondence

a) All correspondence throughout the Competition must be in the English language.

b) The Competition Website will aim to cover many of the questions that Participants and other Interested Parties may have. Any additional questions or comments concerning the Competition should be sent via email to support@xeek.ai

c) The Promoter makes no guarantee of an answer or a time in which an answer may be given. The Promoter reserves the right not to answer a question if, in the Promoter’s opinion, an answer would give an unfair advantage to certain Participants.

d) Participants who have received unofficial or content sensitive information relating to the Competition with the intent of allowing an unfair competitive advantage, from employees, interns, apprentices and trainees or any party involved with the Competition must immediately inform the Promoter by email to support@xeek.ai.

9. Prizes

a) The total value of prizes available for this Competition is $25,000.  A winning Individual Participant or Team will win a cash prize as follows: Best overall model ($12,000), Best segmentation model ($4,000), Best clustering model ($4,000), Best transfer learning model ($4,000), and Best visualizations/deployment ($1,000) (each winning Participant a “Winner” or together “Winners”).  For the avoidance of doubt, if a Team wins a prize, the prize will be split evenly among the Team Participants. The prize is subject to acceptance by the Individual Participant/each Team Participant of the Terms and Conditions relating to the Competition. Winners will be selected at the sole discretion of Xeek LLC.

b) All taxes imposed on prizes are the sole responsibility of the Winners. Prizes will be net of any taxes the Promoter is required to withhold.  If a Winner fails to provide any required documentation the prize will be forfeited.

c) Additional prizes may be added based on the size of the Participant pool. If additional prizes are added, details will be shared with Participants through email.

d) Prizes are non-transferable and no substitution will be made except at the Promoter’s sole discretion. The Promoter reserves the right to substitute a prize for one of equal or greater value if the designated prize should become unavailable for any reason.

e) The Promoter reserves the right to award alternative prizes if necessary to comply with local laws.

10. Intellectual Property

a) Participants agree that their Submissions will be treated as having been submitted on a non-confidential basis whether or not such Submissions are marked or referred to by the Participant as being confidential.

b) Neither the Promoter nor its Affiliates will have a duty to treat the Submissions as confidential.

c) The Promoter or its Affiliates may share any Submissions to their venture capital and other commercial partners on a non-confidential basis.

d) By entering into this Competition, Participants grant the Promoter and its Affiliates a worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, transferable, fully paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable license and right to reference, use, have used, distribute, have distributed, reproduce, have reproduced, create and have created derivative works of, modify, have modified, copy, have copied, make, have made, sell, offer for sale, export, have exported, import and have imported the whole or any part of any of their Submissions and the source code used to generate such Submission, in any media now known or deployed in the future, for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise without further approval or payment.  

e) Further, by entering into this Competition, Participants waive the right to assert any moral rights in a Submission against Promoter or any of its Affiliates.

f) Participants warrant that they have the necessary rights to grant the license contemplated in these Terms and Conditions and hereby indemnify the Promoter against any and all claims made in relation to the Submission.

g) Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall be construed as the Promoter granting any Participant any license under the Promoter’s and/or any of its Affiliate’s intellectual property rights (including, without limitation, the Promoter’s or/any of its Affiliate’s trademarks, trade names, and copyright in any images, publications and/or other materials produced by, or on behalf of, the Promoter/any of its Affiliates and distributed to Participants in connection with the Competition), which may only be used by Participants with the Promoter’s prior written consent.

g) Participants agree to allow the Promoter and/or its Affiliates to (without any remuneration) use, represent, and reproduce their name, image, biography and words for any purpose in connection with the promotion of the Competition and/or the Promoter and/or its Affiliates (including, without limitation, in conjunction with any Submission) by all means, in any kind of medium and format and in any territory.

h) By submitting an entry to the Competition, the Participant warrants that the content of the entry is entirely of that Participant’s own creation and does not in any way infringe the intellectual property rights (including, without limitation patents, copyrights, visual materials in whatever form, sound recordings, any copyright protectable work, designs, trade or services marks, database rights, rights in know-how, rights protecting goodwill and reputation, moral rights or other similar rights in any country, in each case whether or not registered, and any applications for registration of any of the foregoing, and all rights to apply to register any of the foregoing) of any other person. If it is discovered that any entry is not the original creation of the appropriate Participant and/or breaches and other person’s intellectual property rights, the Promoter shall be entitled to disqualify that entry and the appropriate Participants from the Competition.

11. Privacy

a) The Promoter collects the personal data of Participants as stated on the online registration form on the Competition Website for the purposes of organizing and managing the Competition and communicating with Participants. Promoter collects further personal data (Participant’s nationality, date of birth, residential address and bank account details) during the Competition in order to arrange receipt of and/or participation in prizes as well as to carry out screening in order to comply with legal and regulatory obligations. Personal data provided by Participants will only be used in accordance with the Privacy Policy available at https://xeek.ai/privacy.

b) Only with Participant’s explicit consent will the Promoter use or share Participant’s personal data with third parties for direct marketing purposes.

12. Claims and Disputes

a) Any Participant or Team suspected by the Promoter of plagiarism may be investigated, and, if deemed appropriate by the Promoter (in its absolute discretion), disqualified from the Competition.

b) Participants should notify the Promoter of any disputes regarding the Competition within one (1) calendar month of the end of the Competition by email to support@xeek.ai with the word 'Dispute' included the subject header.

c) The Promoter’s decision and discretion on any dispute shall be final and no correspondence will be entered into on that matter.

d) Save for the agreement between the Promoter and each Participant for the provision of the Competition under the Terms and Conditions as set out herein, participation in the Competition shall in no event be considered or construed as giving rise to any contractual relations with the Promoter or any of its Affiliates and, in particular, shall not give rise to any employment relationship.

e) The submission of an entry should, under no circumstances, be construed as an offer or contract of employment with the Promoter or its Affiliated companies.

13. Restrictions

a) This Competition is void where prohibited or restricted by any Applicable Law. “Applicable Law” means all laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, orders, licenses, permits, judgments, decisions, and other requirements of any governmental authority that has necessary jurisdiction over you, the Promoter or this competition.

b)  This Competition is open only to persons who are not Restricted Parties and who are not located in countries or regions subject to comprehensive economic or trade sanctions or embargoes (including, but not limited to, Cuba, Crimea and Sevastopol, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Russia, and Syria). “Restricted Parties,” means any individual or entity targeted by any national, regional, or multilateral trade or economic sanctions or directly or indirectly owned or controlled or acting on behalf of such persons, entities or, organizations, their affiliates, directors, officers, or employees under any Applicable Law relating to trade or economic sanctions or embargoes, restricted party lists, controls on the import, export, re-export, use, sale, transfer, trade, or other disposal of goods, services, or technology, anti-boycott legislation, including without limitation those of the U.S., the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The Promoter reserves the right to monitor or investigate any transaction, activity, or content associated with the Competition, and take any action that it deems appropriate to prevent or remedy violations of Applicable Law or these Terms and Conditions.

 14. General

a) The Promoter or its Affiliates assume no responsibility or liability for any loss arising out of or from: (i) technical issues, system or software failures experienced by a Participant in submitting their registration/Submission or accessing the Competition Website; (ii) user errors; (iii) negligent use of the Competition Website; or (iv) late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete or unintelligible registrations/Submissions. Proof of sending will not be accepted as proof of receipt.

b) The Promoter tries to ensure the standard of the Competition Website remains high but cannot be held responsible for interruptions of service. The Promoter reserves the right to suspend temporarily the operation of the Competition Website without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair, or for any other reason beyond its control.

c) The Promoter makes no promises or warranties (either express or implied) that use of the application will be uninterrupted, error-free or fit for any particular purpose.

d) All information or advice provided as part of the Competition website is intended to be general in nature. The Promoter is not liable for any action you may take as a result of relying on such information or advice or for any loss or damage suffered by you as a result of you taking this action.

e) A Winner that accepts a prize agrees to release and hold the Promoter and its Affiliates harmless against any and all claims and liability arising out of the award of, the use or misuse of any prize. Where the law implies warranties, which cannot be excluded, the Promoter’s liability for breach of those warranties is limited to resupplying the prize (or paying for the costs thereof), where this is permitted by law. A Winner assumes all liability for any injury, loss, or damage caused or claimed to be caused by participation in this Competition or use or redemption of any prize.

f) The Promoter shall not be liable to Participants under or in connection with the Competition for any injuries, damages or losses including for any indirect, economic or consequential loss or for any loss of profits, loss of business, loss of contracts, loss of use or loss of reputation.

g) The Promoter reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Competition in whole or in part at any time.

h) The Promoter further reserves the right to disqualify any participant who tampers with the submission process, Competition deliverables, or otherwise tries to undermine the operation of the Competition.

i) The Promoter may at its sole discretion disqualify an Individual Participant or a Team from participating further in the Competition if the Individual Participant/Team shows a disregard for these Terms & Conditions or acts in any unsporting or disruptive manner.

j) The Promoter reserves the right to monitor any information/materials posted on or submitted through the Competition Website by a Participant. The Promoter, at its sole discretion and without prior notice, may at any time review, remove or otherwise block any information/materials posted on or submitted through the Competition Website.

k) The Competition Website may offer Participants the opportunity to join in or read from a forum and Participants acknowledge that any communications posted on such forum represent the views of the individual who posted such communication and are not to be taken as the views of the Promoter. The Promoter accepts no responsibility or liability for anything posted on the forum by any user of the forum and Participants must not use the forum to post, upload, or otherwise transmit information or pictures that are defamatory, offensive, obscene, a breach of privacy or otherwise unlawful.

l) The Promoter reserves the right to, upon notice to Participants, unilaterally amend these Terms and Conditions from time to time.

m) If a Participant has submitted the same, or a broadly similar, idea in any other competition, details of the competitions in which that idea has been used must be provided to the Promoter. The Promoter reserves the right to disqualify any entry which is composed of substantially the same idea or concept as has been submitted by the relevant Participant in any other competition.

n) If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is declared by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions contained in these Terms and Conditions will be not affected or impaired in any way.

o) Any and all claims or proceedings arising out of or relating to these Terms and Conditions, including non-contractual claims or proceedings, will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule that would provide otherwise.

Any and all claims or proceedings arising out of or relating to the Terms and Conditions, including non-contractual claims or proceedings, must be instituted exclusively in the federal courts of the United States or the courts of the State of Texas, located in the City of Houston and the County of Harris, although the Promoter retains the right to bring any suit, action, or proceeding against you for breach of these Terms and Conditions in your state or country of residence. You waive any and all objections to the exercise of jurisdiction over you by the courts and to venue in the courts listed above. To the fullest extent by law, each party hereby irrevocably waives its rights to trial by jury in any claim or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms and Conditions.