You found a real problem at work, and your employer wants it built. Sponsorship turns that into a competition entry: the firm provides the data and a named contact, and you build on the same schedule as everyone else. This page covers the details, including what stays the same, what the firm signs up for, and how to propose one.
A Sponsored Project is not a separate track. It runs on the same timeline as every other project: same registration, same idea submission, same build sessions, same stages, same demo. Every deliverable is due when everyone else's is due. Sponsorship changes where the idea comes from and who is helping you build it. It does not change what you owe or when you owe it.
Here's how that plays out at each step:
Your team. Sponsored does not mean solo. You form a team the normal way, and your teammates do not need any connection to the firm. One catch: the sponsor signs off on the full roster. That's fair. They're the ones sharing data with it.
Your first deliverable. You submit your idea by the same deadline as everyone else. The one addition: the signed sponsorship agreement goes in with it. No signed form, no sponsored project.
The build sprint. If your team advances, the sprint looks exactly like everyone else's. Same sessions, same deliverables, same bar. Your sponsor is encouraged to give feedback throughout the sprint, and they're invited to the Friday sessions. Invited, not required. The building is on you.
If you don't advance. The competition stage ends. The project doesn't have to. You have a sponsor who wanted this built, and nothing stops you from finishing it with them. Some of the best outcomes may come from exactly that path.
The only other difference: if parts of your project are proprietary, you demo a sanitized version. Everything else is the standard program.
Sponsorship is a commitment, not a blessing. Before the semester starts, three things must be in place:
One specific person at the firm who agrees to meet with you on a regular cadence and give feedback on the work. “Someone on the team will help” is not a sponsor.
Whatever the project needs to exist (data, API access, sample documents, internal context), the firm confirms exactly what it will provide before you start. Here's why: a sponsored project that is still waiting on data in week four is a dead project. We settle this on day one so it cannot happen.
One page. It covers the project scope, what the firm provides, and how confidentiality works. Your sponsor contact signs it.
Sponsored or not, this is still a competition entry. That means the judges get full access to everything you build: the code, the product, and enough of the data to evaluate the work. The firm keeps its intellectual property. But a project the judges cannot see is a project that cannot be judged, so there is no version of this path without that access.
You will also present your work publicly, just like every other team. If parts of the project are proprietary, you present a sanitized version: same product, same demo, with the sensitive names and numbers swapped out or masked. Your sponsor can review the public version before you present it. What you cannot do is skip presenting. Standing up and defending your work is half the value of the program, and we are not trading that away.
Talk to your employer first. Confirm they want to sponsor and identify who your sponsor contact would be.
Form your team, then run the roster by your sponsor for sign-off.
Send the sponsorship agreement to your sponsor contact for signature.
Submit your idea by the normal deadline, flagged as a Sponsored Project, with the signed agreement attached.
From there, you're on the standard schedule with everyone else.
Everything else about the fall works the same for every team: four stages, five Fridays, one demo.
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