Rules and conditions

• “Hackathon” refers to the Ophthalmology Hackathon event organized by the Organizing Institutions.
• “Organizing Institutions” refers collectively to MNGHA (including its Department of Ophthalmology and Innovation Division), KAIMRC.
• “Organizers” refers to the steering committee, operational team, judges, and appointed administrative leads of the Hackathon.
• “Participant” refers to any individual or team member registered for, attending, or submitting ideas, software, algorithms, hardware designs, or presentations to the Hackathon.
• “Institutional Data” refers to all medical records, imaging (including but not limited to OCT scans, fundus photography, visual fields), tabular clinical data, synthetic clinical datasets, genomic data, operational workflows, or internal documents owned, managed, or provided by the Organizing Institutions for the purpose of the Hackathon.
• “Output” or “Project Deliverable” refers to all computer code, software algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) models, synthetic data pipelines, documentation, designs, diagnostic tools, prototypes, slides, and verbal presentations produced by Participants during the Hackathon.
• “Background IP” refers to any pre-existing intellectual property, trade secrets, algorithms, patents, software code, or datasets owned by or licensed to a Participant or the Organizing Institutions prior to the start of the Hackathon or developed independently outside the scope of the Hackathon.
• “Foreground IP” refers to all intellectual property, inventions, algorithms, software, patents, and copyrightable works created or developed by Participants specifically during and as a direct result of participating in the Hackathon.

2.1 Eligibility Requirements

1. Registration is open to physicians, residents, researchers, data scientists, AI/software engineers, students, healthcare professionals, and technology innovators aged 18 and older.
2. Participants must register using accurate, verifiable personal and professional information.

2.2 Team Formation and Size

1. Participants may register individually or as pre-formed teams.
2. Recommended team size is 3 to 6 participants. The Organizers reserve the right to limit maximum team size or assist individual participants with team matching.
3. Every team must designate one Team Leader to act as the primary point of contact for submission and official communications.

2.3 Professional Conduct and Prohibited Behavior

1. Participants must maintain high standards of academic integrity, professional courtesy, and ethical conduct throughout the event.
2. Harassment, discrimination, abusive language, deliberate disruption of presentations, physical or digital property damage, or unauthorized access to networks/systems are strictly prohibited.
3. Violation of conduct rules will result in immediate disqualification and removal from the event venue and digital platforms.

2.4 Conflict of Interest & External Assistance

1. Participants must disclose any potential commercial, academic, or financial conflict of interest related to their submission upon registration.
2. Mentors and judges assigned by the Organizers offer advice for educational and technical guidance only. Mentors may not join participating teams or claim co-authorship/ownership of Foreground IP created by a team during the Hackathon.

3.1 Originality and Rights

1. All submitted ideas, code, designs, and workflows must represent original work created by the team during the Hackathon timeframe, or build upon open-source assets in full compliance with applicable third-party licenses.
2. Participants guarantee that they hold all necessary rights, permissions, and authority to submit their project materials without violating any third-party rights, patents, copyrights, or non-disclosure agreements.

3.2 Plagiarism & Misrepresentation

1. Plagiarism, unauthorized code duplication, claiming third-party products as original work, or submitting projects completed prior to the Hackathon start time is strictly prohibited.
2. Pre-existing projects may only be used if explicitly declared during registration and provided that significant, novel, and quantifiable feature/model additions are accomplished during the event window.

3.3 Final Deliverables

To qualify for evaluation and prizes, teams must submit the following before the declared deadline via the official platform:
• Complete source code repository links (e.g., GitHub/GitLab access) or executable build files.
• Architecture summary and AI/ML model metadata (where applicable).
• Pitch deck (slides in PDF/PPT format).
• Working prototype demonstration (live demo or recorded video).

4.1 Authorized Data Access & Scope

1. Institutional Data provided for the Hackathon (including de-identified ophthalmic imaging, OCT datasets, visual field reports, and tabular data) is granted solely under a limited, temporary, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for the duration of the event.
2. Data must be accessed and analyzed exclusively within the secure, sanctioned computational environments or cloud infrastructures designated by the Organizers.

4.2 Strict Prohibition on Data Extraction and Re-identification

1. Prohibition of Local Storage: Downloading, exporting, saving to local drives, copying, screenshotting, photographing, or transmitting patient-level or Institutional Data to personal hardware or unapproved storage mediums is strictly prohibited.
2. Re-identification: Participants shall not attempt to re-identify any anonymized or de-identified patient data, nor cross-reference Hackathon datasets with external publicly available or private databases to uncover individual identities.

4.3 Data Retention and Disposal

1. Upon conclusion of the Hackathon, access to all provided Institutional Data will be automatically revoked.
2. Participants must immediately destroy, delete, and purge any temporary files, cached data, or local scripts containing fragments of Institutional Data.

4.4 Data Breach Reporting

1. Any suspected or actual unauthorized access, accidental exposure, data leakage, or breach of security policies must be reported immediately to the Hackathon Organizing Committee and the IT/Data Protection Officer.
2. Failure to report a security incident constitutes grounds for disqualification and potential administrative or legal referral under Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) and institutional policies.

5.1 Third-Party Models, Code, and Generative AI

1. Participants may use open-source frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow), pre-trained weights (e.g., ImageNet, BiomedCLIP), and foundational AI models, provided the underlying licensing permits research and commercial prototyping.
2. Generative AI Transparency: Any material use of Generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) for code generation, writing assistance, or data augmentation must be fully disclosed in the final project documentation.

5.2 Prohibition on Uploading Clinical Data to Public External Cloud AI

1. Participants must not upload, input, or pass any portion of provided clinical data, patient images, or hospital text records into public, external, unapproved cloud-based AI APIs or public LLM prompts (e.g., public OpenAI APIs, external vision models) unless explicitly sanctioned in writing by the Hackathon Cybersecurity & IT leads.

5.3 Clinical Safety Disclaimer & Prototype Classification

1. All AI algorithms, software models, and decision-support tools developed during the Hackathon are classified as early-stage research prototypes only.
2. Outputs are not approved medical devices (Software as a Medical Device – SaMD) and must never be deployed for direct patient diagnostics, triage, surgical planning, or therapeutic decision-making during or after the event without formal regulatory approvals (e.g., Saudi FDA) and institutional oversight.

6.1 Pre-existing IP (Background IP)

1. Participants retain full ownership of their Pre-existing IP. Participation in the Hackathon does not transfer ownership of any Background IP to the Organizers or other participants.

6.2 Foreground Intellectual Property Ownership

1. Standard Participant Ownership: Foreground IP generated independently by a team of Participants during the Hackathon shall be owned jointly by the team members who created it, subject to any pre-existing rights and open-source licenses used.
2. Institutional Data & Resource Triggers: If a project relies heavily on proprietary Institutional Data, specialized equipment, proprietary algorithms, or direct active intellectual input from MNGHA/KAIMRC/KKESH clinical researchers, co-ownership or commercial licensing options may apply.
3. Recommendation for Legal Review: The team agrees to grant the Organizing Institutions a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license to use the developed prototypes and code for internal academic, non-commercial research, educational, and evaluation purposes.

6.3 Commercialization and Patent Filings

1. Prior to filing any patent application or commercially launching a project derived from the Hackathon that incorporates Institutional Data or institutional contributions, Participants agree to submit the proposal to the MNGHA Innovation Division and KAIMRC IP Office for preliminary review and clearance.

7.1 Transition to Scientific Research

1. Hackathon projects do not automatically constitute approved clinical research studies.
2. If a team desires to convert a Hackathon prototype into a scientific publication, clinical trial, or formal research study involving real-world patient data, a separate formal research protocol must be submitted to the KAIMRC/KKESH Institutional Review Board (IRB) for full ethical approval prior to initiating research.

7.2 Academic Authorship and Credit

1. Authorship on future scientific papers resulting from Hackathon projects shall follow standard ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) guidelines.
2. Substantial intellectual contributors, clinical mentors, data providers, and institution affiliations (Department of Ophthalmology at MNGHA, KAIMRC, Innovation Division, and KKESH) must be properly acknowledged in all resulting publications and public disclosures.

1. During the Hackathon, Participants may receive access to non-public, confidential clinical workflows, proprietary code, unreleased research data, or institutional strategic plans (“Confidential Information”).
2. Participants agree to hold all Confidential Information in strict confidence and not disclose it to third parties without prior written consent from the Organizing Institutions.
3. This obligation of confidentiality survives the termination or conclusion of the Hackathon for a period of five (5) years.

1. Submissions will be evaluated by an expert panel of ophthalmologists, data scientists, healthcare innovators, and technology experts appointed by the Organizers.
2. Evaluation criteria will focus on: Clinical Relevance & Impact, Technical Feasibility & Execution, Originality & Innovation, User Experience/Design, and Presentation Clarity.
3. Conflict of Interest in Evaluation: Judges will recuse themselves from scoring any project with which they have a personal, professional, or academic conflict of interest.
4. Finality of Decisions: All scoring, shortlisting, and final prize awards determined by the judging panel and Organizers are final, binding, and not subject to appeal.
5. Prize Forfeiture: If a winning team is subsequently found to have breached these Terms & Conditions, patient privacy rules, or IP rights, the Organizers reserve the right to revoke awards, request return of prizes, and award the prize to the next eligible runner-up.

1. By participating, Participants grant the Organizing Institutions the right to take photographs, audio, and video recordings during the event.
2. The Organizing Institutions are granted a royalty-free right to use Participants’ names, professional affiliations, photographs, project titles, and non-confidential project summaries for institutional reporting, academic highlights, social media, and future promotional activities.
3. Clinical Image Exemption: Explicitly, no patient clinical imaging, OCT scans, fundus photographs, or clinical data shall ever be used for marketing, public relations, or promotional materials without separate, formal consent adhering to Saudi PDPL regulations.

1. This Agreement and event governance shall be interpreted in accordance with the applicable laws, regulations, and health policies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including guidelines issued by the Saudi Health Council, Saudi Food & Drug Authority (SFDA), National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA), and the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL).
2. Dispute Resolution: Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to participation in the Hackathon shall first be submitted to amicable resolution mediated by the Legal Affairs Office at MNGHA/KKESH. If unresolved, it shall be referred to the competent judicial authorities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1. No Clinical Warranty: The Organizers make no guarantees or warranties regarding the technical feasibility, medical safety, or commercial viability of any project prototype.
2. System Availability: The Organizers are not responsible for technical glitches, network outages, platform failures, or loss of project data during the event.
3. Indemnification: Participants agree to hold harmless and indemnify MNGHA, KAIMRC, KKESH, and their employees, judges, and agents against any third-party claims arising from the Participant’s violation of third-party IP rights, data leaks, or illegal conduct.

1. By checking the agreement boxes during digital registration or submitting project materials, the Participant acknowledges that they have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by all terms, conditions, policies, and requirements set forth in this document.
2. This agreement remains effective from the date of registration until all post-event obligations are fully fulfilled.