Art & Science of Space Masterclass (AASOS)

 Eligibility

• The minimum eligible age for participation is 18 years.
• The competitions are open worldwide for designers from any discipline.
• You can participate as an individual or as a team of a maximum of 4 members.
• All students and professionals can participate in the competitions.
• For Students: A student is someone who is currently enrolled in a full-time graduate/undergraduate program at a university anywhere in the world on the date of registration. We will need proof of identity upon the result declaration. The proof of identity should clearly state that you were enrolled in the institution at the time of registration. You may also produce a bonafide/authorized certificate from the institution as proof of identity. Students are allowed to involve one mentor/professor/guide in their team provided the mentor has been authorized via a bonafide certificate of the University.
• All the participants who do not belong to the student category will be considered professionals by default. Ph.D. candidates will also be considered professionals.
• Institutional access is a program for students only if they are participating in the competition as a group of 20 people and want to submit 5-20 entries together. Institutional access has to be done under the guidance of a mentor/professor.
• A team with even one professional will be considered as a professional entry.

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Base Rules

• You can register more than one photo series but they have to be registered separately.
• Your submission as part of any competition is linked to your UNI user account which stands as your identification, we do not have any identification codes. So, ensure that the final images submitted do not include your name or any other mark of identification.
• Submit JPEG images only. (PNG will not function)
• Each competition requires the submission of original work. If it is referring to an existing work, it will be counted as plagiarism. 
• All the images will be viewed on a digital device. e.g. Laptop screen or projector. Uploaded sheets or images will not be physically printed for evaluation. The submission hence should be prepared for digital viewing only.
• The official language of the competitions in English.
• The registration fee is non-refundable. Therefore, should a participant or team change their mind, refuse or fail to submit an entry after registering, the registration amount will not be refunded. Read the cancellation policy for more information.
• If there are any changes in the competition brief or schedule, they shall be updated on the website. 
• When you register for a competition, you are automatically agreeing to the terms and conditions of UNI. 
• Anybody working with UNI or associated with us are not eligible to participate or receive awards in competitions hosted on UNI. That includes currently working employees at UNI, jury members, community moderators or contract agencies, and their direct relatives.

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Disqualification

• The participant or teams will be disqualified in case of unethical practices or disregard for any other competition rules. 
• Contacting the jury is strictly prohibited. 
• Plagiarism of any idea/design/image/text will be disqualified with a notice. 

The competition is protected by our disqualification policy to support fair play in a competitive environment like UNI. Participants are requested to stick to the details in the brief and connect with the curatorial committee on contact@uni.xyz in case of doubts or revisions. 

Please check the link above for details. Failure to adherence may lead to soft or hard disqualification based on violation.

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Judging Criteria

The entries will be judged by an international jury of the competition on the following criteria:

• Presentation: The fundamental to a good entry is a visual delivery of ideas.
• Concept/Idea: Quality of thought and intent in pre-design phase.
• Programme/Spaces: How the spaces are conceived along with the programme.
• Design Outcome: The final architectural outcome of the solution.

The judging panel can also add other criteria based on their internal discussions - which will be in line with the problem statement. Participants are advised to fulfil above given criteria first in their design. Names of the jury panel will be announced soon.

The decision of the Judges Panel is final, no appeals will be entertained and no further correspondence shall be entered into.

Please note that the jury scores are NOT affected by the number of likes on a project. Every submission is evaluated based on the judging criteria. However, ‘Likes’ play a role in determining the People’s Choice Awards. 

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Voting Rules

• People's Choice Award is applicable to all the participants.
• The People's choice award will be given on the basis of a project (in either student or professional category as per the award list) with the most number of authentic likes.
• You can begin receiving likes on the project as soon as you upload your entry (even before the submission deadlines).
• You can share your project on social media/messaging platforms apart from UNI as well as soon as you upload the project. You do not have to wait for the results. 
• The voting will close as per the date mentioned in the schedule of the competition page. Any likes coming after this date/time will be not counted in the final calculation.
• Creating fraudulent/fake/bot/impersonating accounts to increase public votes will be considered as unfair means and may lead to disqualification with a notice.

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Awards and Fees

The fee to participate grows based on the number of registrations received. Similarly, the prize money proportionally grows with rising participating entries. A total of 500 entries will be accepted in the competition till the last deadline. If the competition reaches a total registered entry of 500, then the participation process will be closed at a total prize pool of 24,000 USD. This implies, the sooner you register, the less you will pay as fees. More number of teams you will compete with, the higher the amount of prize you will be entitled to receive.

As for the awards that a competition will result in, there are the following types of awards

1. Winner
2. Runner-up
3. Honorable Mention

The first three are decided based on the jury scores.

4. People’s Choice

This is driven by people’s votes or likes on the platform.

5. Organizer’s Choice Award
6. Editor’s Choice Award

These are chosen by the organizing committee and the curatorial/editorial committee of UNI, respectively, to recognize the value brought to the competition by some projects that may not have won in any other categories.

To learn more about the above, and other, types of awards, visit here. 

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 Yearbook

Winners of this competition will get published in our annual publication known as UNI Design Explorer which is released every year. This particular publication is one of the most important design resources released every year for the design community on UNI. Earn these bragging rights by participating in this competition. The project titles featured in this publication series are Winner, Runner-up*, Honorable Mention*, People’s Choice, and Editor’s Choice.

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