Rules and Regulations
Team Eligibility and Demographics
Requirements:
To be eligible, teams must have:
A group of students (undergraduate, honours, and master's students) committed to design and build a TAH within the competition time frame.
1-2 nominated student team leaders
An academic advisor
No more than 20% PhD students
Only students from the home university campus
Note: There is no limit on the size of your team.
Recommendations:
It is recommended that teams have students from a variety of fields, e.g:
engineering, biomedical, science, medicine, commerce, business, marketing, etc
We encourage participants to create interdisciplinary teams.
Teams will need great project managers, technical experts (e.g. engineers) and business experts (e.g. business, commerce) to achieve the best outcomes.
Exceptions:
If a university has another campus in another country, they may form a separate team.
If a university has another campus within the same country, the formation of a separate team will be approved on a case-by-case basis. (Contact us)
Time frame considerations
Teams may continue to recruit and change throughout the competition. We understand that institutions don't have the same schedule, so recruitment is different for everyone.
Please keep the Organziers up to date of any major team changes (e.g. new team leads)
Ensure the team doesn’t excede 20% PhD students
Students are permitted to be part of a team, even if they should graduate during the competition. They may stay involved with the team for a maximum of 12 months, to facilitate handover and for presenting at events (such as the Grand Final)
Entry Fee - ISMCS Membership
Entry Fee
There is an annual entry fee for competing in the Heart Hackathon competition of $350USD.
This fee is a Group Membership for our partner organization the International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS).
This fee goes directly into supporting the running of the competition, such as venue hire and catering for the Grand Final.
To be successfully registered for the competition, teams should submit proof of membership purchase with their first assessment submission.
Purchasing ISMCS Membership
Complete instructions can be found on our Registration Page.
To participate in this competition, each team will be required to register for an ISMCS Group Membership.
The fee to obtain this membership is $350 USD.
One group membership is required per team.
When purchasing a membership:
Visit the Purchase Membership page
Nominate 4 team members to be registered on the membership.
(We recommend you include your advisor and team leads.)Provide the information below in the comment section:
Heart Hackathon - "Team Name", University, Country
Team member 1 - Role
Team member 2 - Role …
Proof of this payment is due with your Preliminary Report Submission, when Registration Closes.
Grand Final
ISMSC Conference:
The annual Heart Hackathon Grand Final Event will be held in conjunction with the annual ISMCS Conference, at the same location as the ISMCS conference, the day before the conference begins.
Finalists are welcome and encouraged to stay for the ISMCS conference following the Grand Final Event.
Please note that conference registration fees are not covered by the ISMCS group membership
ISMCS Conference webpage: ISMCS 2024
2024 Heart Hackathon Grand Final Event
Date: November 12th, 2024
Location: Utsunomiya, Japan
Attendance
Finalists will be invited to present their work and TAH at this event.
Only teams that attend the Grand Final Event are eligible for Grand Final prizes.
Attendance is not compulsory, as it requires funding and travel. However, it is strongly encouraged.
Requirements
The Grand Final is an invitation only event.
Finalists will be asked to bring their device (if feasible).
Finalists will present their work to panellists and other finalists. More information on the presentation requirements will be provided on our Resources page closer to the date.
Finalists will NOT be required to give a live demonstration of their device. Video footage of their device in action is encouraged.
Top finalists will be awarded prizes.
Prizes
Financial Prizes
The Heart Hackathon is thrilled to be able to offer monetary prizes to our winning teams, to support them in their future research.
In 2024, the Heart Hackathon offers:
1st place: $1500 USD
2nd: $800 USD
3rd: $400 USD
Bonus prizes are subject to availability, under assessor discretion. Previously these have included Most Novel Device and Most Advanced Device.
Payment
Prizes will be paid to winning teams after the Grand Final event.
The Heart hackathon Organizers will be in touch with winning teams to complete the transaction.
Criteria and Expectations
Criteria:
The aim of the Heart Hackathon is to promote and support student innovation in the cardiovascular engineering space. We work to have criteria that ensure the competition is fair for all participants, and relevant to the overall competition vision.
Beyond this, we don’t want teams to be limited by our expectations imposed by design criteria.
Expectations
In the first years of the competition, the Organizers expect to see:
TAH pump designs that can deliver 5L/minute at appropriate systemic and pulmonary pressures (i.e. the flow rate and pressures to support a human)
Some unrefined and bulky bench-top prototypes
As teams progress each year, Organizers expect to see:
First-generation designs from previous years improved and refined.
Deadlines for Submissions
Please refer to our Assessments page for all assessment deadlines.
Assessments
Written assessment deadlines are advertised at the start of the competition.
Assessment deadlines are typically provided as a date only. Submissions are required by this date, according to local time zones.
Any teams that are late to submit assessments much contact the Organizers to get approval for the submission.
The Heart Hackathon Organizers understand that as a global competition, there are many time zones and university schedules to accommodate for.
The Organizers aim to cater for this by providing a relatively broad 24hr submission window for teams to submit their assessments.
Presentations
Presentation dates are approximately advertised at the start of the competition, and will be confirmed closer to the date.
The TAH Symposium requires Zoom presentations. These presentations will be scheduled in accordance with time zone requirements.
The Grand Final presentations are presented in person at the Grand Final event. An agenda will be provided to teams before the event.
Registration
Teams are required to register for the Heart Hackathon competition. They will first need to complete the Entry Form. They will then need to prepare a progress report, which confirms their participation for that year’s competition.
More information about registration may be found on our Registration page.
Entry Form
This form ensures teams have found student leads, an academic advisor and some team members. It also ensures teams are aware of the entry fee.
Completion of the form is required for successful Entry.
Once the entry form has been submitted:
Teams are considered to be registered.
Teams will be added to our mailing lists.
Teams will be invited to private events.
Teams will receive private benefits (e.g. software access).
The form contains some basic permission requests such as media release and data collection consent.
The form will close on the deadline of the first submission.
The First Assessment
The first assessment is the Preliminary Report.
The Preliminary Report is a brief progress report that teams are required to submit.
Failure to submit the Preliminary Report will result in teams being de-registered from the year’s competition.
Supplementary to the report, teams are required to submit:
Proof of payment of ISMCS team membership.
Demographic data of the competing team.
Report writing guidelines and marking rubric may be found on our Assessments page.
Events
Throughout the competition, the Heart Hackathon Organizers will host various online events, such as educational workshops, industry events, and team presentations. These events aim to provide participants with key information and guidance to support them in the competition.
Public Events
Event attendance is not compulsory for competing teams, but is highly recommended
Refer to our events pages for Upcoming and Past Events recordings.
To attend an online event, register through the linked ticket system (e.g. Eventbrite)
Our public educational content will be recorded for later viewing.
Our events are open access and free, so anyone may attend.
Private Events
Some events will be private, restricted for competing teams only.
Some events require presentations by the competing teams to other teams and industry reviewers.
Other events may include exclusive content provided by our competition Sponsors.
These events may provide opportunities for engagement with industry members and academics, which will be limited to registered team members.
These events may be recorded for private viewing by the teams, or not recorded. Organizers will inform attendees which of these is the case before the event.
Communication
From the Organizers
Outgoing communications will be sent by the Heart Hackathon Organisers to the primary emails provided by teams during registration. This may be the team email, and/or the student lead’s email, and/or the team advisor's email.
Event announcements will be made via email and on our social media platforms.
The Heart Hackathon Organising committee may be reached via email, through website queries, or via our social media platforms. We endeavour to respond to all queries within 72 hours.
Teams may arrange Zoom meetings with the Heart Hackathon Organizers if desired.
To the Organizers
Please contact the Organizers via the email address hearthackathon@ismcs.org