Assessment

The entries to INFOMATRIX will be assessed in a three-step procedure:

• The first phase (acceptance) will be held just after the registration of the project. The seriousness of the project will be evaluated. The abstract of the project should be written in English, the standard of English itself, however, is not a decisive criteria, the sources used should be named/documented and quotations should be marked for this first phase.
• In the second phase (pre-selection), accepted projects should be uploaded to INFOMATRIX servers via ftp. A jury of experts (software engineers, programmers, professional designers, professors, teachers) will evaluate the projects in two sections (university and high school) and the qualified ones will be announced as soon as possible so that they can complete the formal procedures for getting the visa and arranging the transportation on time for the final phase.
• In the final phase, qualified project owners will come to Bucharest and arrange their stands in the exhibition hall. Exhibition will be open to public for two days. In the mean time, the jury will assess the projects during the exhibition.

Criteria

Acceptance

• Checking whether the project matches to the selected category or not.
• Confirming the data in the fields filled by the team leader (School name, address ...etc)
• Clarity of the project description.

Pre-selection & Final

Common Criteria

• Documentation
  How good the functionality and technical background of the project is documented. If you're writing a software application, please make sure to distribute the documentation along with it, or even better, embed it inside the application itself.
  
• Originality / Creativity
  Is your project built around a remarkable, new idea? Even if you're trying to address a classical problem, do you at least try to do it in a new, and better way?
  
• Oral presentation (only in final)
  The impact of the presentation and the verbal skills.
  
• The stand design (only in final - stand, national costume, activity at the stand)
  How attractive the design of the stand is. Bonus points for cultural exchange; We want to learn about your country and culture!
• Technical Skills
  The level of technical skills involved by the authors in the creation of the project.

Programming

• Usability (interface)
  How easy is the program to use, regarding its purpose.
• Functionality
  The level to which the project completes the functions which its purpose comprise.
• Practicably
  How useful is the program in day-to-day situations or in industrial environments.

Notes from Jury:

• The documentation will not be at all neglected - in real life, how you document your work often has more importance than the work itself.
• A great deal of focus will be on originality and practicality.

Hardware Control

• Usability (interface)
• Functionality
• Practicably

Computer Art

• Visual impact
• Message & idea
• Graphical aspect
• Artistic development

Digital Content

• Visual impact
• Message & idea
• Graphical aspect
• Content
• Artistic development

Photography

• Size (larger side): 1600 pixels
  
• Format: JPEG
• Color space: sRGB
• Color / Black & White
• Digital photos or digital scan of films allowed

You can send up to 3 photos (that can create a suite, in order to better represent the theme)

Your work will be scored from 0-30, with 0-10 points given to each of these sections:

• idea, message, adherence to the theme (the content of the photographs should be appropriate, timely, and well thought out, and have a purpose and theme)
• photographic technique, using the right concepts and tools to deliver the message (composition, color, light, lines, textures, organizing objects, structure of the depths etc.)
• originality, cohesion and impression (the creativity of your work; the new, unusual or interesting manner in which you present the theme, idea etc.) In the final phase, the ability to present and explain your work will also be very important in deciding the winner.

Notes from Jury: Photo editing and enhancing is allowed and encouraged with the following exceptions:

DONTs
- the use of tools such as cloning, healing, inserting text, drawing anything over the photo (frames are OK though), combining several photos into one
- the inclusion of computer generated art of any kind (there is a separate category for that, this is exclusively for photography)

DOs
- allowed to use manipulation such as cropping, levels, curves, tone adjustments, dodge/burn tool, sharpening, filters and similar.

All photographers that will be selected in the final phase of the contest will make photos of the Infomatrix 2009 contest. At the end, the best album of the event (not more than 10-50 photos) will receive the album prize.

During the final contest (24th and 25th of April 2009), the jury will organize two crash-course photography trainings.