Nissan Innovation Garage $50,000 Contest (18+, DL)

The Innovation Garage begins on Wednesday, August 29th 2012 at 12:00:01 am Pacific Time (“PT”), and all submissions must be received by October 12th, 2012 at 11:59:59 pm PT.

Offered in and open only to legal residents of the United States and District of Columbia age 18 and older or of the age of majority in their state of residence, whichever is older, who have a valid driver’s license.

During the Innovation Garage Term, you may submit your idea online at www.nissaninnovationgarage.com (the “Innovation Garage Website”). Submissions will be accepted only via the Innovation Garage Website. All submissions must be in English. You must provide a valid email address, which will be the primary means to communicate with you. You must also have a Facebook account in order to complete your submission. To register an account with Facebook, please visit https://www.facebook.com.

NO LIMIT ON THE NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS PER PARTICIPANT.

Submission Form Requirements:
All Innovation Garage Participants must clearly and concisely complete all six (6) sections of the Submission form:
Wouldn’t it be cool if… Describe your innovation in 500 characters or less.
What’s your innovation’s name? Give your innovation a title? (40 characters or less)
Facebook Connect: Connect with Facebook.
Email: What’s the best email address to contact you about your Submission?
Age: What’s your birthdate?
State of Residence: In what state do you currently reside?

The contents of your Submission must be wholly your original work and you must have the full ownership rights to your Submission, or you must have obtained all necessary rights and permissions to use and submit the Content in connection with this Contest. You will be required to certify that you have the sole authority to permit the Sponsor to use your Submission for any purpose.

Evaluation of Submissions:
Evaluation of Submissions will occur in two (2) rounds. As the Submissions are received and prior to the start of the first round, a qualified moderator will review each Submission to determine whether it is in compliance with the Rules and meets the eligibility requirements of the Contest. Submissions that do not comply with these Terms and Conditions will be immediately disqualified. Submissions may not contain advertisements, commercial endorsements, or any material that is indecent, obscene, profane, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory, overtly political or religious, slanderous, libelous, unlawful or promoting illegal activity, infringes on the rights of others, or otherwise inappropriate as determined by the Sponsor in its absolute discretion. Submissions may also be disqualified if they include gibberish, spam, malicious content aimed at the Sponsor, or licensed or copyrighted material including, but not limited to photos, text, music, games, apps, and celebrity likenesses. Sponsor may disqualify any inappropriate Submissions or material in its absolute discretion.

If the moderator approves the Submission, then it will be published to a public gallery on the Innovation Garage Website (re: Public Voting below). The decisions of the moderators and judges will be final in all instances.

First Round – The first round of judging will consist of select Nissan staff and other representatives involved in the design and implementation of the Contest. On or about October 15th, 2012, first round judging will begin, and will continue until approximately October 19th, 2012. First round judging will be based on the following criteria:
Originality: To what degree is this idea innovative or unique? Does it make a conceptual or lateral leap we haven’t seen before? (40%)
Impact: To what degree could this idea provide significant public benefit i.e. improve people’s lives? (30%)
Feasibility: To what degree could this idea come to fruition and be mass-produced at a reasonable cost and price? (30%)

The one hundred (100) submissions with the highest scores will advance to a second round of judging. In the event of a tie, the Submission with the higher score in the category of “Originality” will move on to the second round of judging.

Second Round – The second round of judging will involve expert evaluation of each Submission by a panel of experienced mechanical, applied and industrial design engineers. On or about October 22nd, 2012, the second round of judging will begin, and will continue until approximately October 26th , 2012, after which time the Winners will be announced. Judging will be based on the following criteria:
Originality: To what degree is this idea innovative or unique? Does it make a conceptual or lateral leap we haven’t seen before? (40%)
Impact: To what degree could this idea provide significant public benefit i.e. improve people’s lives? (30%)
Feasibility: To what degree could this idea come to fruition and be mass-produced at a reasonable cost and price? (30%)

The two (2) submissions with the highest scores will become the Innovation Garage Grand Prize Winners.

Public Voting – On or about August 29th, 2012, Public Voting will begin, and will continue until approximately October 12th, 2012. Submissions that are in compliance with these rules and meet the eligibility requirements of the Contest will be published on the Innovation Garage Website. Visitors to this site can comment on Submissions, vote for them and share them with their friends and social connections. Visitors must have a valid Facebook account in order to vote, and only one vote per Submission per day during the Innovation Garage Term will be allowed. The Submission receiving the highest number of votes at the conclusion of the Public Voting period will become the Innovation Garage Crowd Favorite. In the event the Crowd Favorite is also one of the Grand Prize Winners, the Submission with the next highest number of votes will be awarded the Crowd Favorite prize.

Conditions to detect voter fraud will be put in place and tampering with the public voting process will not be tolerated. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any Submission from public voting if there is suspicion of fraudulent activity. Sponsor may also determine in its sole discretion that certain Votes are ineligible due to tampering. All decisions of Sponsor regarding Public Voting are final. Although Contest entrants can ask people to Vote for them, buying Votes in any manner will be considered voter fraud.

Grand Prizes (2): Each winner will receive US $50,000* in funding for their innovation, an All-New 2013 Nissan Altima (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price not to exceed US $30,000), and up to 20 hours of engineering consulting.
* Prize funding will be contributed in the form of a Kickstarter account in the name of each winner. You are responsible for paying all fees associated with your use of Kickstarter, including but not limited to success fees and Amazon payment processing fees. For more information, please visit www.kickstarter.com.

Crowd Favorite (1): an All-New 2013 Nissan Altima (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price not to exceed US $30,000).

The approximate retail value of all prizes is US $190,000. Limit one prize per Participant.