Objective
Design an object that XPRIZE will place on the seafloor at 4,000 meters beneath the sea surface as part of a high-tech underwater Treasure Hunt for the Finalist teams in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.
Background
The $7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE is a three-year international competition for innovation in deep-sea technologies to rapidly map the seafloor at a very high resolution and collect high-definition images from the ocean. The success of this prize will allow us to fully explore and map the ocean floor, uncovering our planet's greatest wonder and resource for the first time in human history.
We have nine teams from around the world competing for the final round of the competition and to win this XPRIZE, one of their challenges is a high-tech deep-sea Treasure Hunt – they will have to find an object that XPRIZE puts on the seafloor. The teams will use underwater robots equipped with a wide array of acoustic and optical technologies to achieve this task. We are asking you to help us by designing the object of this high-tech underwater Treasure Hunt.
Award
The First Place Team and overall winner will be awarded the Grand Prize of $2000 and their School will receive a donation of $5000.
The Second and Third Place awards will be made in each of the following four categories:
1. Most Inspiring
2. Most Creative
3. Moonshot (craziest)
4. Most Environmentally Friendly
The Second Place Prize will be awarded to four teams, who will receive $1000 each and their Schools will receive a donation of $2000 each. The Third Place Prize will be awarded to four teams, who will receive $500 each and their Schools will receive a donation of $1000 each.
Eligibility
This competition is open internationally to all students aged 12 to 18 years old that are either enrolled in a school or are homeschooled. Participants can enter as an individual or as a team of up to four students.
Participants who are under the age of 18 must submit a Parent Consent Form. You can access the Parent Consent Form here: https://xprizefoundation.box.com/v/design-a-deep-sea-treasureform. Please upload the signed and completed document in the Parent Consent section of the submission form.
Family members of the Judging Panel are not eligible to participate.
Guidelines
To win this competition, teams have to design an object that will be used as a deep-sea treasure in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. Components that teams must take into consideration as they design their deep-sea treasure, including design specifications and information, are below. To win, teams must submit:
- A 2-3 minute video describing your underwater treasure design;
- A 500-word maximum description of your design;
- A drawing or schematic (hand-drawn or digital) of your design.
More details of what to Submit (including formats) are in the ‘How to Submit’ section.
Design theme: Teams are encouraged to incorporate themes of ocean discovery, ocean mythology, innovation, exploration, the XPRIZE logo, your school logo, etc. into the design. Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE and XPRIZE official logos can be found HERE. Teams can submit 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional designs but keep in mind that the winning treasure design will be fabricated as a 3-dimensional object by XPRIZE. The only limits to your design are your own imagination!
Depth: The winning treasure design must be able to withstand the crushing pressures found at 4,000 meters water depth (over 5,600 lbs. per square inch!). This means there should be no hollow air-filled inclusions in the design that can collapse or implode from the pressure. You are encouraged to investigate the affect that high pressure has on materials and designs.
Orientation: Because of the depth and how XPRIZE places the object on the seafloor, the object may land upside down. If your design has a specific orientation, it must be capable of self-righting itself as it is being placed on the seafloor. Keep this in mind when you design the object.
Ocean-Safe: To reduce the impact of the object on the deep-sea environment, the treasure will be made by XPRIZE out of materials that are not harmful to the marine environment or degrade into harmful components. The object should not have design elements that can entangle or harm marine organisms. This includes noise or light pollution which means your design should not have any active lights or sounds. In your design description, please include how your design is not harmful to the ocean.
Production of Object: XPRIZE will be responsible for the production of the object. The final size and weight of the winning treasure design will be determined after the selection to take into consideration operational constraints. If you win, we will discuss with you how the object can be created so it can be shipped to the competition site. XPRIZE retains the right to modify the Grand Prize team's treasure design as necessary to ensure operational integrity and compliance for the purposes of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition.
How to Submit
To enter, applicants must submit all of the following:
- A drawing or schematic (hand-drawn or digital) uploaded as a .jpg, .png, or .pdf of your design.
- 500-word maximum description of your design in English. Please copy and paste your description in the Entry Description section of the submission form.
- An original video between 2 - 3 minutes long describing your design. Each video submission should be uploaded to YouTube and the link should be submitted on the HeroX website by or before 11:59 GMT on 5 July 2018. Submissions under or above the set length or submissions in the wrong format will be rejected.
Submissions will be accepted online only through the HeroX website, and must comply with the following requirements:
- Submission must be original work of Team;
- Submission must include only content (including any technical information, algorithms, designs, music, audio, visual or illustrative content, including logos, images, graphics, art, or other content, information, or materials protected any intellectual property right) that Team owns or has proper rights to use; if it is in the public domain, then you may use it.
- Team is required to disclose any purchased or licensed content that is part of a Submission.
- Submissions must not contain any incomplete, corrupt, damaged, or malicious material;
- Submissions must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy, copyright, trade secret, patent, trademark, publicity or any intellectual property rights;
- Submissions must not disparage any XPRIZE Competion sponsor, partner or XPRIZE Competition Team;
- Submissions must not contain material that is inappropriate, offensive, indecent, obscene, tortious, defamatory, slanderous or libelous and must not contain material that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age; and
- Submissions must not contain material that is unlawful, in violation of, or contrary to laws or regulations.
Judging
The Judging will take place in two rounds.
The first round will be primarily through the CROWD! Anyone can vote through the HeroX website between 9 - 20 July 2018. The top 16 teams that the crowd has voted on will move on to the second round of Judging.
An additional four wild-card teams will be selected by the XPRIZE Judging Panel for a total of 20 teams who will move on to the second round of Judging. These 20 teams will also receive XPRIZE Swag Bags.
The First Place Team will have the overall highest voted upon design.
The Second and Third Place Teams will be judged in each of the following four categories:
1. Most Inspiring
2. Most Creative
3. Moonshot (craziest)
4. Most Environmentally Friendly
The second round of judging will be by the XPRIZE Judging Panel who will determine the Grand Prize winner and the Second and Third Place winners. The XPRIZE Judging Panel will consist of members of: (i) the independent and expert Judging Panel for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE; (ii) the elite Scientific Advisory Board for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE; and, (iii) the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE Core Operations Team. All decisions made by the Judging Panel are final.
All winners will be announced 31 July 2018.
