As part of Converge, Sparkathon is a retail and tech solution showcase where students get to present their ideas to Walmart and industry leaders. Students submit their ideas across four broad themes related to retail tech and the shortlisted teams will get to pitch their ideas to an expert jury panel. Expert jury panel will give valuable feedback to these teams and pick a top student team amongst those that are shortlisted. Student teams may get an opportunity to interview for an internship or full-time roles with WM Global Technology Services India Private Limited (“Walmart Global Tech India” or “Walmart”) as well as exciting gifts.

The term for Sparkathon will be from July 15th, 2024 to September 20th, 2024. Registrations for Sparkathon will open on July 15th, 2024 and will be valid till August 16th 2024. Winners will be announced during Converge scheduled on September 20th, 2024. Participation in Sparkathon will be governed by the following terms and conditions: -

• Sparkathon is open to all engineering college student teams within India from the below listed branches (Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electrical engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Science, Math, Data Science and AI)
• Undergraduate or dual degree engineering students, graduating in the year 2026 who achieve first, second, or third place at Sparkathon will have the opportunity to interview for an internship at Walmart
• Undergraduate, dual degree or master’s degree engineering students, graduating in the year 2025 who achieve first, second, or third place at Sparkathon will have the opportunity to interview for a full-time role at Walmart.
• Please note that there is no obligation on the part of Walmart to offer internship or employment to students. Walmart is only offering an opportunity for an interview subject to meeting the eligibility criteria.
• Each student team can comprise of a maximum of four students and a minimum of two students. There cannot be any modification of the team members and each team is expected to finish Sparkathon with the people they started with
• Walmart’s judging committee’s decision will be basis a comprehensive evaluation framework designed exclusively for Sparkathon. All decisions taken will be final and shall solely rest with the Walmart committee judging the event
• Plagiarism means passing off someone else's work or ideas as your own or simply taking credit. Any person found plagiarizing will be disqualified and his/her submission will be disregarded by Walmart’s judging committee
• There are four problem statements on the Sparkathon website, that are aligned to the four sub-themes. Participants will have the option to choose any ONE sub-theme
• Walmart reserves the sole right to accept or reject any submission at its discretion.
• Employees of Walmart or partners collaborating with Walmart for Converge shall not be eligible to participate in Sparkathon
• Intellectual Property - Except as stated otherwise, each Party shall retain all right, title, and interest in and to its Intellectual Property. No Party acquires any Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) by virtue of participation under the Sparkathon event. Further, each Party recognizes that the other Party may, in future, develop or purchase products or services related to or similar to the subject matter of Confidential Information disclosed under the Sparkathon event. Accordingly, each Party may use Residuals for any purpose, including use in the acquisition, development, manufacture, promotion, sale or maintenance of products and services that are similar to the Intellectual Property Rights of a Party to this Agreement, provided that this right to Residuals does not represent a license under any intellectual property and/or proprietary rights of Discloser. The term 'Residuals' means information that is retained in the unaided memories of either Party as permitted herein who has had access to the other Party’s Intellectual Property Rights. Memory is unaided if either Party has not intentionally memorized aspects related to the Intellectual Property Rights for the purpose of retaining and subsequently using or disclosing it
  
• Confidentiality - During the validity of the term 'Sparkathon', either Party may receive or have access to technical information, as well as information about product plans and strategies, promotions and related non-technical business information which the disclosing Party considers to be confidential ("Confidential Information"). In the event of such Confidential Information being disclosed, the Parties shall first agree to disclose and receive such information in confidence. If then disclosed, the Confidential Information shall be marked as confidential at the time of disclosure, or if disclosed orally but stated to be confidential, shall subsequently be designated as confidential in writing by the Disclosing Party summarizing the Confidential Information disclosed and sent to the receiving Party within a reasonable period of time. The obligations stated in this section shall not apply to any information that is:
  - Already known by the Receiving Party prior to disclosure
  - Publicly available through no fault of the Receiving Party
  - Rightfully received from a third party without a duty of confidentiality
  - Disclosed by the Disclosing Party to a third party without a duty of confidentiality on such third party
  - Independently developed by the Receiving Party prior to or independent of the disclosure
  - Disclosed under operation of law
  - Disclosed by the Receiving Party with the Disclosing Party's prior written approval
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