K-Hacks
We are a humanoid company in Palo Alto, focused on creating powerful, useful, and open source humanoids. We love robots. Come build something cool and make tangible progress on your robotics project! It doesn’t necessarily have to be a humanoid robot, but humanoids are strongly encouraged.
Humanoid Robotics Hackathon Code of Conduct
This event is a community hackathon focused on collaboration and innovation in humanoid robotics. We value the participation of each member of the community and aim to create an enjoyable experience for everyone. All participants are expected to show respect and courtesy to others. The following Code of Conduct will be enforced by the organizers throughout the event.
The Code
Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:
- Offensive or inappropriate comments or behavior.
- Cheating or taking unfair advantage of others’ work.
- Harassment, mocking, or intimidation, especially regarding:
- Gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, age, ethnicity, physical appearance, race, religion, or country of origin.
Participants asked to stop inappropriate behavior must comply immediately. Failure to do so will result in removal from the event. The Code applies to all participants, including sponsors, judges, mentors, volunteers, and organizers.
Event Rules & Conditions
The following rules apply to this humanoid robotics hackathon (“Hackathon”), organized by DPSH Syndicate aka K-Scale Labs (“K-Scale Labs”):
1. Liability
By participating in the Hackathon, you acknowledge that you bear full responsibility for any injury, damage, or loss arising from your participation, including but not limited to:
- Risks associated with shared working spaces.
- Venue layout.
- Equipment.
- Any technical and mechanical work relating to the construction, testing, and operation of robots by participants in the Hackathon.
You agree, as a condition of participation in the Hackathon, that K-Scale Labs, its affiliates, its officers, employees, and consultants (collectively, the “Releasees”) are not liable to you or any person affiliated with you for any injury, damage, or loss, except to the degree that they arise from the intentional, reckless, or willfully negligent act of K-Scale Labs. By participating, you voluntarily accept the risk of injury, damage, or loss arising from any act of ordinary negligence by K-Scale Labs or the Releasees.
- You acknowledge that participation in the Hackathon involves certain inherent risks, including those arising from the use of robotics equipment, machinery, electronics, and related tools, and agree to assume those inherent risks as a condition of participation in the Hackathon.
During the Hackathon, participants’ use of equipment, machinery, electronics, or related tools that is owned by K-Scale Labs must be approved or supervised by a qualified individual designated by K-Scale Labs. K-Scale Labs shall not be held liable for injuries, damages, or losses resulting from participants’ unauthorized or unsupervised use of K-Scale’s equipment.
2. Ownership of Work
- All code and developments created during the event are expected to be open source. As a condition of participating in the Hackathon, you agree to license your contributions under an open-source license (e.g., MIT, Apache 2.0, or similar, excluding AGPL and its variants) to ensure they can be freely used, modified, and shared by the broader community.
- All third-party tools, APIs, and other resources utilized during the event remain the property of their respective owners and are subject to their applicable terms and licenses.
3. Use of Submitted Work
- By participating, you grant K-Scale Labs the right to use submitted projects or materials (“Submitted Materials”) on K-Scale Labs’ website(s), social media feed(s), and collateral materials. Participants in the Hackathon warrant, as a condition of their participation, that their Submitted Materials comply with all laws and do not infringe on any intellectual property or other rights held by third parties.
4. Collaboration and Confidentiality
- The Hackathon is intended to foster collaboration and idea-sharing. Any and all information you share with other participants is at your own discretion. K-Scale disclaims any responsibility to ensure that your proprietary information is otherwise protected from disclosure to others participating in the Hackathon.
5. Media Authorization
- By participating, you allow K-Scale Labs to use your likeness, voice, and any images or media of your work for promotional purposes, both during and after the event.
6. Photography and Videography
- Photography and videography while at the Hackathon is permitted if the participant(s) that are the subject of the photography have been given a reasonable chance to opt out by the photographer. Participants are expected to honor any Hackathon participant(s) objection to the taking of their photograph, and failure to do so is considered a violation of this Code of Conduct such that K-Scale Labs may elect to remove the photographer from the Hackathon premises without notice.
7. Safety and Behavior
- Participants must follow safety protocols, including those announced by Hackathon personnel and volunteers, when handling any robotics hardware.
- Smoking is not permitted anywhere on the property being used for the Hackathon, including the lawn or in front of the house.
- Alcohol consumption is not permitted on the premises of the Hackathon or during any Hackathon event.
8. Prizes and Awards
- Prizes are subject to availability, and K-Scale Labs reserves the right to substitute or withdraw any announced prizes prior to their actual award to a participant, without notice. K-Scale Labs also reserves the right to delay delivery of, or revoke, an announced prize in the event that plagiarism or similar dishonest conduct is credibly alleged and proven by one Hackathon participant against another.
9. Non-Disparagement
Participants in the Hackathon agree not to disparage K-Scale Labs, its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, volunteers, sponsors, or partners in any written or oral statement. This does not prohibit the winner from providing truthful information in response to any legal process, including but not limited to a subpoena or court order; provided, however, that unless absolutely infeasible you will immediately notify K-Scale Labs of your receipt of any instrument of legal process, and under no circumstances any later than forty-eight (48) hours of its receipt, to permit K-Scale Labs to evaluate whether it is required to oppose disclosure of the sought-after information.
10. Media Coordination
- Hackathon winners agree to submit any proposed media (e.g., blog posts) about their award or project to K-Scale Labs for its records.
- Hackathon winners agree that at K-Scale Labs’ discretion they may be featured in interviews or promotional content created by K-Scale Labs, including as published on K-Scale Labs’ website and other media platforms.
11. Hold Harmless and Indemnification
- To the extent that you utilize any tools, application programming interfaces (“API’s”), or any other intellectual property which is owned by a third party outside the scope of any license which the third party may require for use of that resource, you agree to hold harmless and indemnify K-Scale Labs in any dispute in which it is alleged by that third party that the Hackathon infringed on its intellectual or other property rights by virtue of your participation in the Hackathon.
- You also agree to indemnify and hold harmless K-Scale Labs, its officers, directors, employees, volunteers, and sponsors from any other claims arising from your participation.
12. Failure to Comply with Code of Conduct
- Hackathon participants who are asked to stop any behavior violating any provision in this Code of Conduct are expected to comply immediately with the request. Failure to do so will result in expulsion from the Hackathon.
- Any other violation of this Code of Conduct by a participant or a sponsor may, at the sole discretion of K-Scale Labs, result in your removal from the Hackathon. If the conduct at issue relates to a violation of the rules against unsafe or excessively disruptive behavior, as determined by K-Scale Labs in its sole judgment, it will result in your removal from the Hackathon. If a participant engages in unlawful or harassing conduct (as defined above), K-Scale Labs may take any action deemed appropriate, including warning the offender, expulsion of the offender from the Hackathon, or, in serious cases, reporting the conduct to local law enforcement.
Any person asked to leave or ejected from the Hackathon shall not be entitled to any refund of any fees paid by the participant or any third party for the expelled person’s participation in the Hackathon.
If a participant is expelled from the Hackathon for a violation of any provision in this Code of Conduct, they shall not receive any refund of any fees paid to participate in the Hackathon.
By registering to participate in the Hackathon, you acknowledge and agree to each of these terms.
Additional Event Rules
These are supplemental to the Hackathon Code of Conduct. Your cooperation with each is essential to the smooth operation of the Hackathon and avoid any inconvenience to others.
Restricted Areas
Certain areas of the house, including but not limited to the upstairs rooms, are off-limits to participants. Please respect these boundaries and do not enter restricted areas.
Common Areas
Please keep common areas clean and tidy. Dispose of trash in designated bins and be considerate of others by not leaving personal belongings unattended in shared spaces.
Garage Equipment and Robots
Do not touch any equipment or robots in the garage without permission from the organizers. This rule is in place to protect valuable equipment and ensure safety.
Noise Levels
While we encourage collaboration, please be mindful of noise levels, especially in areas where people may be working quietly or taking breaks.
Furniture and Equipment
Use the house’s furniture and equipment responsibly. Do not move furniture or use equipment without permission from the organizers. If you encounter any issues, report them immediately to a staff member.
Parking
The hackathon organizers are not responsible for parking. Please be sure to park in a manner that is respectful of parking rules and do not block driveways or other cars, which could result in your being towed.
Reporting Violations of the Code of Conduct
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns about conduct that may violate the Code of Conduct, please contact a member of the hackathon staff immediately.
Logistics Issues
Overnight Accommodations
Overnight accommodations are provided on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of K-Scale Labs, depending on availability. If you intend to stay overnight, please let us know ahead of time. You’re welcome to bring your own tent or mattress pad to sleep on as well.
Parking
Parking is limited, so carpooling is strongly encouraged. Please do not block any neighbors’ driveway under any circumstances! It is illegal and thus can get you towed.
Challenges
K-Hacks is about building robots. The goal is to accelerate the transition to a world with useful general-purpose robots. You are free to build any new robotics-related project you desire or improve your current existing work. Your project should be related to making a robot do something useful. It is usually easier to start with an existing robot, but you can also produce your own robot design.
Equipment
The Hackathon will have the following equipment onsite:
-
3D printers:
- We use the Bambu Labs X1 Carbon printers. Please contact Ben or JX for assistance setting up the printers.
-
Electronics bench:
- Two soldering stations
- Power supply, multimeter(s), and other relevant equipment
-
Assorted resistors, capacitors, and other components
-
Actuators:
- We have a limited number of actuators available, so we strongly suggest bringing your own.
-
CAN controllers:
- Some of what we have available are:
- LX-16A
- Feetech
- Robstride
- MyActuator
- Encos
- Some of what we have available are:
-
Jetsons
-
GPUs