Administrator: devEco Consulting LLC Contest: Resilient America Preparedness Challenge ("the Challenge")

Version: 1.0 Effective date: [2026-08-03] Last updated: [2026-07-31]

These Official Rules are the binding terms for the Resilient America Preparedness Challenge. They sit underneath the plain-language overview published on deveco.io. The overview explains the spirit of the Challenge and what you are building toward. This document is the legal agreement you accept when you enter.

This Official Rules document governs Track A (Developers) & Track B (Startups). You may participate in only one track, as described in Section 4. These Official Rules incorporate the overview and the community rules published on deveco.io. By entering, you also agree to follow the community rules.

If anything in the overview or the community rules appears to conflict with these Official Rules, these Official Rules control. If anything here is unclear, contact us at help@thedeveco.com before you enter.

By entering the Challenge, you agree to every term in this document.

1. Definitions
2. Organizer, Sponsors, and Partners
3. Contest period and key dates
4. Eligibility
5. How to enter
6. Project scope and content standards
7. Export control and end use
8. Intellectual property
9. Privacy, data, and publicity
10. Judging
11. Dev kits
12. Prizes
13. Release and limitation of liability
14. Code of conduct
15. Disqualification
16. Changes, cancellation, fraud, and force majeure
17. Compliance with law and anti-corruption
18. General provisions
19. Contact

In these Official Rules:

• "Organizer," "we," "us," "our" means devEco Consulting LLC.
• "Sponsors" means Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., acting through its Qualcomm for Good social impact initiative,along with its affiliates and/or subsidiaries including Edge Impulse and Arduino.
• "Partner Organizations" means the EDGE AI FOUNDATION, and any other organizations identified on deveco.io as supporting, judging, or providing resources, platforms, or tools for the Challenge.
• "Challenge" means the Resilient America Preparedness Challenge as described in these Official Rules and on deveco.io.
• "Track A" means the Developers track.
• "Track B" means the Startups track.
• "Entrant," "you," "your" means any individual or team that enters, attempts to enter, or participates in Track A & Track B.
• "Team Lead" means the single adult Entrant designated as the account of record and primary contact for a team entry.
• "Minor" means an individual who is under 18 years of age, or under the age of majority in their place of residence.
• "Proposal" means a Stage One submission published on deveco.io.
• "Project" means a Stage Two functional prototype, including its source repository, writeup, and demo.
• "Entry" means a Proposal or Project, as the context requires.
• "Dev Kit" means the Resilient America Preparedness Challenge Dev Kit provided to selected Semi-Finalists.
• "Semi-Finalist" means an Entrant selected as one of the Top 50 Innovators.
• "Grand Prize Winner" means the Entrant selected for the top award of the Challenge.

The Challenge is organized and administered by devEco Consulting LLC, supported by the Sponsors and the Partner Organizations. devEco Consulting LLC is responsible for running the Challenge, including selection, judging coordination, communications, and prize fulfillment, except where these Official Rules assign a responsibility to another party. The Partner Organizations include providers of the platforms and tools used in the Challenge, including the dev kit hardware and the on-device model tooling identified on deveco.io.

The Sponsors and Partner Organizations are not responsible for the administration of the Challenge unless stated otherwise in these Official Rules.

The Challenge runs from the launch date through the finale. Milestone and deadlines are listed on the home page.

Deadlines are firm. An Entry submitted after its stated deadline may be rejected. We confirm exact dates and times at launch and post any changes on deveco.io. We may adjust dates at our discretion, as described in Section 16.

You must be 18 years of age or older, or the age of majority in your place of residence, whichever is greater, at the time you enter, unless you participate as a Minor on a team under Section 4.4.

Track B is open only to startups that are registered United States entities. To be eligible, the Entrant must be a registered organization formed and in good standing under the laws of one of the fifty United States or the District of Columbia.

The startup must be an early-stage company that is pre-seed or bootstrapped.

The natural person who enters on the entity's behalf, the Authorized Representative, must be 18 or older, or the age of majority in their place of residence, whichever is greater, and must be authorized to bind the entity to these Official Rules.

Track A is open only to individuals who, at the time of entry, are legal residents of the fifty United States or the District of Columbia. Where prize fulfillment or hardware shipment to you is prohibited or restricted by law, we cannot ship a Dev Kit or award a prize to you.

Regardless of residency, you are not eligible, and we cannot ship a Dev Kit or award a prize to you, if you are a "Restricted Person," meaning any person that is (i) listed on any U.S. government restricted or prohibited party list, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List and Consolidated Sanctions List, and the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List, Unverified List, Denied Persons List, and Military End User List, or any similar list maintained by another applicable authority; (ii) owned 50 percent or more, in the aggregate, or controlled directly or indirectly by one or more such persons; or (iii) otherwise the target of applicable sanctions.

By entering, you represent that you are a resident of the United States, that you are not a Restricted Person, and that your participation does not violate any sanctions or export law that applies to you.

We may, at our discretion, require a winner to complete identity or eligibility verification before any prize or Dev Kit is awarded. Where shipment or payment is restricted by law, we may withhold the prize or, where permitted, offer a substitute as described in Section 12.

People directly involved in running or judging the Challenge cannot win prizes. This includes employees, contractors, officers, and agents of devEco Consulting LLC, the Sponsors, and the Partner Organizations who are engaged in the execution, administration, or judging of the Challenge, and their immediate family members and members of the same household. These people are welcome to build for fun.

Builders under 18 (Minors) may take part only as members of a team that a parent or legal guardian of the Minor enters and participates in. The parent or legal guardian must be an adult, must serve as the adult Team Lead and the Entrant of record, must be 18 or older, and is responsible for the Minor's participation. A Minor may not be the Entrant of record and may not enter on their own.

Minors are not eligible to win prizes. If a team that includes a Minor is selected for any prize or Dev Kit, the prize or Dev Kit is awarded to the adult parent or legal guardian who is the Entrant of record, and not to the Minor.

For any team that includes a Minor, a parent or legal guardian of each Minor must provide written consent and must sign, on the Minor's behalf, every document these Official Rules require, including any release, publicity consent, eligibility affidavit, and tax form. If a required parent or guardian consent is not provided within the time we specify, the team may be disqualified or the Minor may be removed from the team at our discretion.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from anyone under the minimum age permitted in their jurisdiction. The adult Team Lead is responsible for any information a Minor contributes to an Entry.

Teams may be any size, and solo entries are allowed. Every team entry must designate one adult Team Lead. The Team Lead is the account of record on deveco.io and our sole point of contact for that Entry.

We deal only with the Team Lead for notifications, verification, prizes, and disputes. We are not responsible for resolving disputes among team members, including how a team allocates any prize. If there is a dispute about who controls an Entry, we treat the registered Team Lead account holder as the authorized owner. We may require a team to confirm its membership and the Team Lead in writing.

You may participate in only one track of the Challenge. You may not enter, join, or be named on Entries in both Track A (Developers) and Track B (Startups), and the same Project or idea may not be submitted in both tracks. If you are a founder, owner, employee, or authorized representative of an entity entered in Track B, you may not separately enter Track A. If we find the same individual participating in more than one track, we may, at our discretion, disqualify one or all of the affected Entries.

If you are employed or affiliated with an organization, you are solely responsible for confirming that your participation, your Entry, and any prize you accept comply with your employer's or institution's policies, including policies on gifts, outside work, intellectual property, and ownership. devEco Consulting LLC is not liable for your failure to obtain any internal permission you need.

The Challenge runs in two stages.

Stage One: Submit a Proposal. Register on deveco.io and publish your Proposal there. No code or prototype is required at this stage. A complete Proposal addresses the six items described in the overview: the problem and the community it affects, who benefits, your technical approach including hardware and the edge AI model, why it must run at the edge, how you will share the journey, and an honest read on feasibility.

Stage Two: The hardware sprint. The judging panel selects the Top 50 Semi-Finalists and ships each Semi-Finalist a Dev Kit. Semi-Finalists build a functional prototype in the open on deveco.io over the sprint period, using the on-device model tooling identified on deveco.io so the model runs on the device with minimal or no cloud dependency. Your final Project submission includes a source repository with code and any relevant hardware design files, a written project writeup explaining what you built and how others can adapt it, and a short demo by video or live presentation showing the prototype working.

To be eligible for judging, you must be a registered participant, your Entry must be your own original work as described in Section 8, and your Entry must meet the scope and content standards in Section 6. Entries must be submitted in English, or with an English writeup, so that judges can review them.

Your Project must use edge AI, meaning models that run on the device itself rather than depending on a cloud server, to serve one or more of the five strategic pillars described in the overview, and it must help a real community. The five strategic pillars are:

1. Anticipate and Mitigate Risk.
2. Strengthen Preparedness and Planning.
3. Enable Real-Time Response.
4. Accelerate Recovery and Continuity.
5. Operate in Mission-Critical Environments.

The scope, including what is encouraged and what is out of scope, is part of these Official Rules. In summary, the following are out of scope and may be rejected or disqualified:

• Projects whose main purpose is lethal weapons, offensive targeting, or military use intended to kill, injure, or maim.
• Surveillance of individuals or populations, or tracking people without their knowledge and consent.
• Collecting personal or biometric data without clear consent and real privacy protection.
• Anything that could reasonably be expected to harm a community rather than help it.

If your Project touches people's data, you must design for privacy and consent and explain those choices in your writeup. When in doubt, ask us before you build.

Because Entries are published openly on deveco.io, your Entry, including its writeup, images, and demo, must not contain any of the following. We may reject or remove any Entry that does, at our sole discretion:

• Sexually explicit, pornographic, obscene, or profane content.
• Content that is unnecessarily violent, or that is hateful toward or derogatory of any group based on ethnicity, race, gender, religion, profession, age, disability, or similar characteristic.
• Content that defames, harasses, or makes disparaging or knowingly false statements about any person or organization.
• Content that promotes illegal activity, including illegal drugs or unlawful use of weapons.
• Content that violates any law or any third party's rights.
• Content inconsistent with the positive purpose and goodwill of the Challenge.

This Section is important. Several pillars of the Challenge, including aerospace and mission-critical intelligence and on-device sensing, involve technology that may be subject to export control. Dev Kits are physical hardware that we ship to you, and you may develop or include technology that is itself controlled.

You are solely responsible for ensuring that everything you include in your Entry, including hardware, software, source code, encryption, models, and technical data, complies with all applicable export control and sanctions laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and any equivalent laws that apply to you. Your Entry must not include technology that is export restricted unless you have verified that it is classified EAR99 or is otherwise lawfully exportable, and unless you have any license required.

As a condition of receiving a Dev Kit or any prize, you represent and certify that:

• The Dev Kit and any prize will be used solely for civilian, non-military purposes.
• They will not be used in any prohibited end use under applicable U.S., E.U., or other export control or sanctions law.
• They will not be exported, re-exported, transferred, diverted, or otherwise made available, directly or indirectly, to any country, entity, or person subject to applicable sanctions or export restrictions.

You agree not to resell, re-export, transfer, or otherwise distribute any Dev Kit or prize in violation of export law. We may deny shipment, withhold a prize, or, where permitted and at our discretion, offer a substitute, if fulfillment would violate export or sanctions law.

You own your work and keep the credit for it. Except for the license you grant in Section 8.2, we do not claim ownership of your Entry.

You decide how to license your own Project. You are free to release it under any license you choose, including an open source license or a proprietary license. These Official Rules do not require you to adopt any particular license. We encourage building and documenting in the open, but the choice of license for your own work is yours.

By submitting an Entry, you grant devEco Consulting LLC, the Sponsors, and the Partner Organizations an irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive license to:

• Use, review, assess, test, and analyze your Entry and its content in connection with administering and judging the Challenge.
• Feature, showcase, reproduce, display, and promote your Entry and its content in connection with the Challenge and its promotion, in any media now known or later developed, with attribution to you.

You agree to sign any reasonable documentation we need to exercise these rights. You understand that we are not obligated to use your Entry, even if it is selected as a winner.

You acknowledge that the Sponsors and Partner Organizations may have independently developed or commissioned materials similar or identical to your Entry, and you waive any claim arising from those similarities. Except as described in these Official Rules, you will not receive compensation or credit for our use of your Entry.

Your Entry must contain only material that you own or that you have the right to use. This includes hardware, source code (both open source and third party), user interfaces, images, audio, and video. If your Entry includes third-party material, including open source and Creative Commons material, you must comply with the applicable license and clearly cite the source, author, and license in your writeup. Some licenses require attribution or permission even when the material is free to use. You are responsible for meeting those terms.

The Entry you submit to this Challenge must be your own original work. It must not have already won a prize in another contest. You must have obtained any consent, approval, or license you need to submit it.

You represent and warrant that your Entry does not infringe any third party's rights, including patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, or moral rights. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless devEco Consulting LLC, the Sponsors, and the Partner Organizations against any claim, loss, or expense arising from an alleged infringement or from your breach of these Official Rules.

If your Project collects or processes data about people, you must build in privacy and consent from the start, and you must explain those choices in your writeup, as described in Section 6.

To administer the Challenge, we collect personal data from you, which may include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and other information you provide. By entering, you agree that devEco Consulting LLC, the Sponsors, and the Partner Organizations may use and share this data to operate the Challenge, communicate with you, verify eligibility, and fulfill prizes.

We process your personal data in the United States in line with the privacy policy published on deveco.io. You may contact us at help@thedeveco.com with questions about your data.

If you accept a prize, you agree that devEco Consulting LLC, the Sponsors, and the Partner Organizations may use your name and your state of residence, and may reference your Entry, online and in print and in other media, in connection with the Challenge and its promotion, without further notice or compensation, except where prohibited by law.

A panel of judges reviews every Entry. The panel includes representatives of the Sponsors, the Partner Organization, and independent industry, academic, and domain experts. The current panel is identified on deveco.io.

Stage One selection. From the Proposals, the panel selects the Top 50 Semi-Finalists. At this stage the idea and the plan are what get judged: the clarity and importance of the problem and the community it serves, the fit to one or more of the five strategic pillars, the soundness of the technical approach and the case for running at the edge, the plan to share the journey, and an honest read on feasibility.

Stage Two evaluation The panel evaluates each Semi-Finalist's working prototype against the weighted criteria as listed on home page per track.

If there is a tie among eligible Entries, an additional judge breaks the tie using the same criteria. If we do not receive enough qualifying Entries, we may select fewer Semi-Finalists or winners than planned. The judges' and Organizer's decisions are final and binding on all matters relating to the Challenge.

Dev Kits provided to Semi-Finalists are yours to keep, for this Project and your next one. Dev Kits are provided as-is, without warranty from devEco Consulting LLC, except for any manufacturer warranty that comes with the hardware. Section 7 governs export and end-use conditions for Dev Kits.

If you accept a Dev Kit, you are agreeing to build, document, and submit a Project by the deadline. If you cannot complete a Project, tell us at help@thedeveco.com. We may ask you to return the Dev Kit. If you neither submit a Project nor return the Dev Kit, you may be ineligible for future hardware from us.

Prizes are described on deveco.io and summarized here.

For all Top 50 Semi-Finalists:

• A Resilient America Preparedness Challenge Dev Kit, built on Qualcomm Dragonwing™ Platform in an Arduino® form factor, yours to keep.
• Recognition as a Resilient America Innovator.
• A featured project page on deveco.io.
• Access to the Sponsors and EDGE AI FOUNDATION network and its mentors during the sprints.
• Eligibility for the Innovation Fast-Track described below.

For the Grand Prize Winner:

• Top billing at the final results, named the Grand Prize Winner of the Challenge.
• A virtual showcase at EDGE AI LIVESTREAMS, hosted by the EDGE AI FOUNDATION, presenting your solution alongside leading AI innovators.
• Priority consideration for the Innovation Fast-Track and partner programs, including a commercialization pathway and mentorship, for example the Qualcomm Scaler™ Startup Program 2026 and consideration for a Qualcomm for Good social impact fund grant.
• A feature across deveco.io and Edge AI Foundation channels.
• Additional prizes may be announced at the results unveil.

Innovation Fast-Track. High-potential Projects may be put forward for partner programs that offer a commercialization pathway, mentorship, and visibility to funders. Being named a Semi-Finalist or Grand Prize Winner does not guarantee selection for any partner program. Those decisions rest with the relevant program and its own criteria.

Limit one prize per Entrant.

If an advertised prize becomes unavailable, or if a supply, export, or legal constraint prevents fulfillment, we may substitute a prize of equal or greater value, including a cash equivalent, except where prohibited by law. You may not exchange a prize for cash or other merchandise unless we offer that option.

If you are a potential winner, we will notify the Team Lead at the email address provided at entry within 5 business days after judging concludes. You must respond within 5 business days and provide any information we need to verify eligibility and fulfill the prize, including contact and shipping details.

We may require you to sign an affidavit of eligibility, a liability and publicity release, and a W-9 or W-8 BEN tax form. For any winning team that includes a Minor, a parent or legal guardian must sign these documents on the Minor's behalf as described in Section 4.4. If notification is returned as undeliverable, if you do not respond in time, if you do not provide required information or signed forms, or if you do not meet eligibility, you forfeit the prize and we may award it to a runner-up.

You are solely responsible for all federal, state, local, and other taxes on any prize you accept. If a prize is taxable and reportable, we may issue an IRS Form 1099 or equivalent. You are advised to seek your own tax advice.

The Challenge does not currently advertise a cash prize. If a cash prize is later added, you must receive it through our designated payment processor. You must complete any onboarding, identity verification, and tax documentation that processor requires. If you do not complete these steps, you may forfeit the cash prize.

You are responsible for providing accurate and complete shipping information. We are not responsible for lost, stolen, delayed, misdelivered, or refused shipments, including those caused by incorrect recipient information. Once a Dev Kit or physical prize leaves our or our fulfillment partner's possession, we are under no obligation to replace it. Prize fulfillment is subject to all applicable trade and export compliance requirements.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release and agree to hold harmless devEco Consulting LLC, the Sponsors, the Partner Organizations, and their respective officers, employees, contractors, and agents from any and all liability for any injury, loss, or damage of any kind arising from or connected to your participation in the Challenge, your build or use of any hardware, your attendance at any in-person event including the showcase or finale, or your acceptance or use of any Dev Kit or prize.

You are responsible for building and operating your Project safely and lawfully. Nothing in this Section limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Everyone in the Challenge agrees to be respectful, inclusive, and kind, online and in person. This includes the community rules published on deveco.io, which apply to all participants. Harassment, discrimination, and bad-faith behavior are not welcome. Anyone who crosses that line may be removed from the Challenge, online or at any in-person event, at our discretion.

We may disqualify an Entry or an Entrant, at our discretion, for any of the following:

• Plagiarism or misrepresenting authorship.
• Falling outside the scope or violating the content standards in Section 6.
• Violating the code of conduct or the community rules.
• Participating in more than one track, or entering the same Project in both tracks, in violation of Section 4.
• Providing false information, or failing to meet eligibility under Section 4.
• Violating export, sanctions, or other applicable law.
• Attempting to compromise the fairness or operation of the Challenge.

Where it is reasonable to do so, we will reach out first if something looks off.

We may update these Official Rules if we need to. We will post any changes on deveco.io, and your continued participation after a change means you accept it.

If cheating, a bug, a bot, a virus, fraud, or any other event that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled affects the fairness, integrity, or feasibility of the Challenge, we reserve the right to change, suspend, or cancel the Challenge, in whole or in part, whether the cause is human or technical. If integrity cannot be restored, we may select winners from the eligible Entries received before the disruption.

If we reasonably believe you have compromised the integrity or operation of the Challenge by cheating, hacking, using automation, or committing fraud, we may disqualify you, ban you from future contests we run, and pursue any remedy available to us under law.

You agree to comply with all applicable domestic and international laws in connection with the Challenge, including export, sanctions, anti-corruption, and record-keeping laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act. You agree not to offer, pay, promise, or authorize anything of value to any person to improperly influence an official act or decision, secure an improper advantage, or otherwise act corruptly in connection with the Challenge.

Governing law and venue. These Official Rules are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in San Diego County, California for any dispute arising from or relating to the Challenge.

Informal resolution first. Before either party starts litigation, you agree to first try to resolve any dispute informally by contacting us at help@thedeveco.com and allowing a reasonable period to resolve it.

Severability. If any provision of these Official Rules is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.

Entire agreement. These Official Rules, together with the overview, the community rules, and the policies referenced on deveco.io, are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Challenge.

Questions about the Challenge or these Official Rules go to help@thedeveco.com. We post updates and answers on deveco.io. Reach out anytime.

devEco Consulting LLC. These Official Rules govern Track A (Developers)and Track B (Startups) of the Resilient America Preparedness Challenge and may be updated, with changes posted on deveco.io.