Defining positions

Companies (exclusively members of SPP FI) must reach an agreement with specific laboratories at FI regarding the scope of work of junior research assistants. The number of students (i.e., potential junior assistants) that is sought for each position must be specified. These positions should be created for at least one semester (i.e., 5 months), while there is no upper limit and the junior position should ideally result in a research position within joint projects of FI and companies.

The position is associated with a scholarship from SPP funds from the company, typically initially in the range of 4 to 8 thousand CZK per month, depending on the intensity of student involvement. Subsequent involvement in further research is based on mutual agreement and satisfaction of all three involved parties (i.e., the student, the sponsoring company, and the faculty laboratory).

As part of the organization of the competition, the laboratories in cooperation with the companies must supply their position specifications in the required format in advance. The order of delivery of these specifications (in their final version) determines the ordering of the position, the company name, and the company logo during the promotion of the competition towards the students.

Specifying the competition assignments

The assignments will be given to participating students in two waves on two days, the students always have 24 hours to solve the task, and to submit their solution to the Information System of MU. Students should be encouraged to submit even partial solutions or concepts. When designing the assignments, keep in mind that the participants are FI students in the 2nd or 4th semester of their bachelor's studies and they often have limited ability to code in multiple languages / environments. Participating students are, however, usually proactive, talented, and clever.

As part of the organization of the competition, the laboratories in cooperation with the companies must supply assignment specifications in the required format in advance. The order of delivery of these specifications (in their final version) then determines whether the assignment becomes part of the first round/day of the competition or the second. From experience, assignments issued on the first day are solved by 2 to 3 times more students than tasks on the second day.

Publishing the assignments and subsequently correcting them

The laboratories in cooperation with the companies, will supply the names and UCOs of the correctors in advance, who will be granted access to the students' solutions of the given task. This solution is then corrected/evaluated. This correction/evaluation should happen within 24 hours, but preferably within 8 hours. Afterwards, the correctors provide the organizers of the competition with a list of names and UCOs of the students who are to be invited to the finals of the competition.

Note that the participating students are clearly informed that they may apply to be interviewed in the finals (Phase IV) for any position they are interested in, not just the positions that they were nominated for nor just the positions whose assignment they solved.

The finals of the competition with interviews for the offered positions

Laboratories and companies agree in advance on the composition of the team (usually 1 to 3 people), who participates on their behalf in the interview with students. Interviews usually take place the day after the evaluation of all student submissions.

Interviews are conducted so that students choose the positions they are interested in and whose representatives they want to talk to. Usually, but certainly not always, these are the positions for which they have solved the corresponding assignment. When considering the positions, students should have at least a general idea of the time that they can devote to working at a given position in the laboratory so that it does not have a negative impact on their studies. When considering the scheduling, half days can be used as the smallest meaningful units of time. Students should consider if the scholarship from the resources of the involved company will correspond to the level of commitment at that position.

The results of the interviews are:

1. Students give the numbers of positions they are interested in, in descending order. For example, 4, 2, and 3; or just 5.
2. The interviewers give the names of students they would be interested in for their position given how the interviews went.

Filling the positions

The organizer of the competition uses the following rules to assign positions to students:

1. In the event of a conflict of these rules, the student's wishes from after the finals have priority.
2. A student that did not express an interest in a given position won't be assigned to it.
3. Nominations from the interviewing teams and the participating students are ordered descendingly, which becomes the basis for filling the positions.
4. Only the predefined number of positions for a given team can be filled.
5. The interviewing teams are forbidden to communicate with students assigned to other positions for two months from when the competition took place.
6. After the organizer of the competition announces it so, students that were not assigned to any position in this phase can contact any team with an interest in collaboration. Such collaborations may take the same form as positions offered in the competition, or any other form.

Starting to work and communicate with the students.

The teams for each of the positions should contact their assigned students without further centralized coordination from the competition's organizer, and agree on the starting date of the collaboration, its duration, its intensity and the awarded scholarship. Representatives of both the laboratories and the companies are forbidden to communicate with students assigned to other positions for two months from when the competition took place.

The teams may contact students who that were not assigned to any position, if their contact information is available, and offer research positions that may or may not differ from the original positions offered in the competition.

The organizers of the competition will greatly appreciate any feedback from students, participating laboratories, or companies, whether it be about the organization of the competition itself or about the work at the given position.