Rules

Requirements

Using open source Twitter data, we challenge you to create a web based application that will automatically deliver a list of the top-five trending illnesses from a specified geographic area in a twenty-four hour period. This data would be sent directly to state and local public health practitioners to use in a variety of ways including: building a baseline of trend data, engaging the public on trending health topics, serving as an indicators of potential health issues emerging in the population, or cross-referencing other data sources.

Your entry should be able to do the following:

  1. Ingest the open source Twitter API.
  2. Allow users to select a geographic area of interest.
  3. Do a frequency count of tweets on health topics during a 24 hour period using a provided illness term taxonomy.
  4. Produce a top-five trending list of those health topics.
  5. Automatically deliver the trending list to the public health user via a web based application.

Eligibility for Participation & Award

To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge, an individual or entity –

  1. Shall have registered to participate in the competition under the rules promulgated by ASPR;
  2. Shall have complied with all the requirements under this section;
  3. In the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States;
  4. May not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within the scope of their employment;
  5. Shall not be an HHS employee working on their applications or submissions during assigned work hours;
  6. Shall not be an employee of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response;
  7. Federal grantees may not use Federal funds to develop COMPETES Act challenge applications unless consistent with the purpose of their grant award;
  8. Federal contractors may not use Federal funds from a contract to develop COMPETES Act challenge applications or to fund efforts in support of a COMPETES Act challenge submission.

An individual or entity shall not be deemed ineligible because the individual or entity used
Federal facilities or consulted with Federal employees during a competition if the facilities and employees are made available to all individuals and entities participating in the competition on an equitable basis.

This Challenge is open to any Contestant, defined as 1) an individual or team of U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States who are 18 years of age and over, or 2) an entity incorporated in and maintaining a primary place of business in the United States. Foreign citizens can participate as employees of an entity that is properly incorporated in the U.S. and maintains a primary place of business in the U.S. Contestants may submit more than one entry, e.g., if they have developed more than one tool.

Any individual or team that supplies false information, enters the challenge by fraudulent means, or is otherwise determined to be in violation of the eligibility criteria or terms of the challenge shall be ineligible for any prize and shall be required to forfeit and prize obtained based on such information or means.

Eligibility for a prize award is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein. ASPR will not select as a Winner an individual or entity that is currently on the Excluded Parties List (https://www.epls.gov/).

Liability

By participating in this competition, participants agree to assume any and all risks and waive claims against the Federal Government and its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from participation in this prize contest, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.

By participating in this competition, participants agree to indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damage arising from or related to competition activities.

Based on the subject matter of the contest, the type of work that it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood of any claims for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss potentially resulting from contest participation, Contestants are not required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial responsibility in order to participate in this contest.

Copyright

Upon submission, each Contestant warrants that he or she is the sole author and owner of the submission; that the submission is wholly original with the Contestant (or is an improved version of an existing tool that the Contestant has sufficient rights to use); and that it does not infringe any copyright or any other rights of any third party of which Contestant is aware. Each Contestant also warrants that their submission is free of malware. Each Contestant also warrants that he or she has complied with the Twitter API Guidelines and Terms listed on the following website: https://dev.twitter.com/docs.

By participating in this contest, each Contestant grants to ASPR an irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to post, link to, share, and display publicly the submission on the Web, for the purpose of the Challenge, during the duration of the Challenge, and for a period of two years following announcement of the winners. Contestants with winning submissions also grant to ASPR an irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to use winning submissions and distribute them to the public to enhance situational awareness and response to health threats for a period of two years following announcement of the winners. All Contestants will retain all other intellectual property rights in their submissions.

Enter Challenge to win $21,000