Timetable

• January 31, 2018: Development kit and registration made available
• March 15 - April 15, 2018: Dry run period**
• April 1, 2018: Registration deadline
• April 15, 2018: Submissions deadline
• May 15, 2018: Challenge results will be released
• June 18, 2018: Most succesful and innovative teams present at CVPR 2018 workshop

** Every contestant will have the opportunity to verify before the submission window closes that their Docker container submission works. This dry run is completely optional but is highly recommended.

Prizes

UG² Prize Challenge evaluates algorithms for enhancement of images/videos at scale. The most successful and innovative teams will be invited to present at the CVPR 2018 workshop. We provide two challenge categories:

1. Image Enhancement to Facilitate Manual Inspection
2. Image Enhancement to Improve Automatic Object Recognition

Each challenge will have:

• $25K awarded to the top scoring entry (including travel money to attend CVPR 2018)
• $12.5K awarded to the runner up (including travel money to attend CVPR 2018)

For a total of $75K awarded in prizes.

The submissions will be judged by a three person team based on the output of the algorithms submitted to each challenge. The Judges will select the winners based upon their assessment of the viability and operational usefulness of the technology, which will be driven by human and automatic assessment, as described in the Challenges section of this website. The three judges are: Walter J. Scheirer (Notre Dame), Adam Czajka (Notre Dame), and Christopher Boehnen (IARPA).

Results submission

Participants who have investigated several algorithms may submit up to 3 algorithms per challenge. Changes in algorithm parameters do not constitute a different method, all parameter tuning must be conducted using the dataset provided and any additional data the participants consider appropriate.

The algorithms designed for each challenge must be submitted as a docker container including everything needed to generate enhanced images for the evaluation of the algorithms. Only one docker container including all the algorithms developed by the team (up to 3 algorithms) needs to be submitted for each challenge (up to 2 containers submitted per team, one per each challenge). It is essential that the participants provide a valid URL containing the submission files.

The algorithms must enhance each image provided in a designated input folder, and save the enhanced versions under the same image name at a designated output folder. That is, an image input/0.jpg would be saved by the first algorithm proposed by the participants in output1/0.png

In addition to the algorithm's URL, participants will need to specify:

• Contact details and affiliation
• List of contributors
• Estimated benchmarks

Eligibility

• Foreign Nationals and International Developers: All Developers can participate with this exception: residents of, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Crimea Region of Ukraine, Sudan or Syria or other countries prohibited on the U.S. State Department’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list. In addition, Developers are not eligible to participate if they are on the Specially Designated National list promulgated and amended, from time to time, by the United States Department of the Treasury. It is the responsibility of the Developer to ensure that they are allowed to export their technology solution to the United States for the Live Test. Additionally, it is the responsibility of participants to ensure that no US law export control restrictions would prevent them from participating when foreign nationals are involved. If there are US export control concerns, please contact the organizers and we will attempt to make reasonable accommodations if possible.

• If you are entering as a representative of a company, educational institution or other legal entity, or on behalf of your employer, these rules are binding on you, individually, and/or the entity you represent or are an employee. If you are acting within the scope of your employment, as an employee, contractor, or agent of another party, you warrant that such party has full knowledge of your actions and has consented thereto, including your potential receipt of a prize. You further warrant that your actions do not violate your employer’s or entity’s policies and procedures.

• The organizers reserve the right to verify eligibility and to adjudicate on any dispute at any time. If you provide any false information relating to the prize challenge concerning your identity, email address, ownership of right, or information required for entering the prize challenge, you may be immediately disqualified from the challenge.

• Individual Account. You may make submissions only under one, unique registration. You will be disqualified if you make submissions through more than one registration. You may submit up to 2 submissions (one per challenge), containing at most 3 algorithms per submission. Any submissions that does not adhere to this will be disqualified.

The organizers reserve the right to disqualify any participating team for any of the reasons mentioned above and if deemed necessary.

Warranty, Indemnity and Release

You warrant that your Submission is your own original work and, as such, you are the sole and exclusive owner and rights holder of the Submission, and you have the right to make the Submission and grant all required licenses. You agree not to make any Submission that: (i) infringes any third party proprietary rights, intellectual property rights, industrial property rights, personal or moral rights or any other rights, including without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, privacy, publicity or confidentiality obligations; or (ii) otherwise violates any applicable state or federal law.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you indemnify and agree to keep indemnified challenge Entities at all times from and against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and expenses resulting from any act, default or omission of the entrant and/or a breach of any warranty set forth herein. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the challenge Entities from and against any and all claims, actions, suits or proceedings, as well as any and all losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys fees) arising out of or accruing from: (a) your Submission or other material uploaded or otherwise provided by you that infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, trade dress, patent or other intellectual property right of any person or entity, or defames any person or violates their rights of publicity or privacy; (b) any misrepresentation made by you in connection with the challenge; (c) any non-compliance by you with these Rules; (d) claims brought by persons or entities other than the parties to these Rules arising from or related to your involvement with the challenge; and (e) your acceptance, possession, misuse or use of any Prize, or your participation in the challenge and any challenge-related activity.

You hereby release organizers from any liability associated with: (a) any malfunction or other problem with the challenge Website; (b) any error in the collection, processing, or retention of any Submission; or (c) any typographical or other error in the printing, offering or announcement of any Prize or winners.

Competition Framework

Note that challenge deadlines are subject to change and additional hurdle deadlines may be introduced during the challenge. Any additional or altered deadlines not already described in these challenge rules will be publicized to the participants via the challenge website. It is the Participant's responsibility in this challenge to check the website regularly throughout the challenge to stay informed of any new or updated deadlines. The organizers are not responsible for any Participant's failure to do so. You may only participate using a single, unique registration (performed at Registration form). The Participant has requested permission to use the UG² database as compiled by University of Notre Dame. In exchange for such permission, Participant hereby agrees to the following terms and conditions

• University of Notre Dame makes no representations or warranties regarding the Database, including but not limited to warranties of non-infringement or fitness for a particular purpose.

• Pre-trained models are allowed in the competition.

• Participants are not restricted to train their algorithms on UG² data data. Collecting and training on additional data is encouraged.