Q&A Tracker
Updated: November 8, 2023
Q1: Can an individual from the University submit without an organization's approval?
Yes, you can. The Challenge does not have any guidance in those terms. It is up to each individual's or team's discretion to decide which form of participation suits best.
Q2: Is there a different permission for an account within the system portal? So for example, is there a different level (authorized rep level, Admin. Level and etc) of permission on each account? Or can a person, the principal investigator, create/develop/submit on behalf of the organization?
The account created on Freelancer.com belongs to the person who registered, unfortunately there is no ability to assign different level of authority. The team leader assigned to each team (if not individual) will be creating the account, submitting the Concept, receive the prize and be the main POC for the Challenge team.
Q3: It seems like there is a mechanism to add team members. Is there a role for the administrator?
No, unfortunately not. You may share your account at your discretion.
Q4: Can a user save the application and come back later to submit the application?
There is no ability to save your Concept Paper and submit it later. However you are welcome to submit at any time and, if needed, you can update your entry until the deadline by submitting new ones. The team will pass the latest version for review and judging. You can also withdraw your entry at any time and submit a new one.
Q5: Is this only a proposal site or also the award management system, system for final report and etc?
Frelancer.com platform serves as the submission portal and award portal. The payment will be done through the platform to the team leader. You can also withdraw your entry at any time and submit a new one. The Challenge team will also be making updates on the Challenge page.
Q6: If I have a proposed hardware solution that could be used for both the Detect/Characterize and Track categories, but using different processing algorithms to address them differently, would that be allowed if presented in 2 different White Papers? I'm mainly asking as there would be *some* overlap of described information in the 2 papers, and wanted to check if that would be looked at unfavorably during the judging process?
Yes, you can submit a single solution for two challenge areas if it addresses both problems. Please ensure you prepare two separate Concept Papers, as each Concept Paper must comprehensively describe one challenge area. While it's acceptable for the information to overlap, keep in mind that they might not be reviewed by the same judge, so there should be no loss of context, and each paper needs to be self-contained and independent from the other.
Q7: For the different categories being asked of, such as Description of Concept, High Level Concept of Operations, Challenge and Physics Based Justification etc, should these essentially be how the White Paper is written up as (i.e. with these as specific sections in the paper)?
Ideally, yes, that should be your guideline on how you would want to structure your submission. Those items are must haves for your concept, since the evaluation criteria is based on those sections. As long as you're within the page limit, you can add other information to it that you see fit. (there is no page limit for visuals).
Q8: I am submitting for all 3 challenges, and I have a question about the submission document. I have come up with 4 solutions, one for each problem, and a way to provide gigawatts of power with ~1000x higher power to weight ratio of nuclear energy. From what I've read it seems the process is designed for single solutions rather than a platform? If I copy the energy solution for each submission it would result in less than half the space for the task specific solution. If needs be, I'll do that, but it would be easier to read and complete as a single document containing all 4 solutions. I would then keep the task specific limit under 12 page total with instructions for the reader/assessor regarding this, but the total would exceed the 12 page limit. This will also allow me to provide the necessary context to describe and reference the system and tasks as a whole, without referring to materials I can't include because of the space limitations. Happy to do either, but this will make for the better product. Let me know if this is allowed?
Yes, each concept paper should be describing one challenge area as there might be different judges appointed to different areas based on their specialty. That was also made this way so that participants could dive into each problem, rather then doing a high level overview. If your solution can solve all challenge areas, you have to submit separate papers for each of them. It is okay for some information to overlap, since some information from description of the concept might be the same, however keep in mind that they might not be reviewed by the same judge, so there should be no loss of context, and each paper needs to be self-contained and independent from the other.
