Qualifying criteria for the preliminary round
1. Team composition:It is suggested that a participating team is composed of interdisciplinary background of industry and agriculture, with research experience in vertical agriculture and smart agriculture.
2. Core of competition : design and planning of plant factory, renovation and construction of plant factory, software and hardware for intelligent environmental control, plant growth and quality control, energy planning and management, commercial development and creative marketing.
3. Technology elaboration: efficient space utilization in plant factories, innovative equipment applications in plant factory , construction of plant physiological models using intelligent environmental control strategies, sustainable production methods for energy conservation and consumption reduction.
Preliminary round
The preliminary round will be conducted through evaluation of technical solutions and online presentations, which will be held in May 2024. All qualified teams shall attend the online session on time, otherwise they will be viewed as forfeiting their participation. The specific starting time and requirements of the preliminary round will be delivered to the participating team together with the notice of qualification.
Competition format of the preliminary round:
1. Technical solutions: The qualified team needs to prepare a detailed technical solution and submit it to the organizing committee which will then be viewed and evaluated by the judging panel. The details include: the background of the participating team, the breakthrough progress the contestants have made in the corresponding fields, planned design ideas and drawings for the container plant factory, and the algorithms and control logic planned for the planting phase, etc.
2. Online presentation: The lead of each participating team will make a presentation to the judging panel within 20 minutes on the introduction of team members, the motivations, and the objectives of participating in the competition, elaboration on the technical solutions, feasibility of commercial promotion, etc. After the presentation, there will be 10 minutes of Q&A where the participants attending will respond to questions raised by the judging panel.

The judging panel will evaluate and instantly conclude scores. Then the 6 participating teams with the highest scores will advance to the finals.
The judging criteria is as follows:
Clear, concise and to the point presentation
Feasibility, promotional capability and prospectiveness of technical solutions
The team's thoughts on the promotion and commercialization of smart plating
The ability of the team to address questions and overall performance during the Q&A session
Finals
The final will be held from June to December 2024, and the competition will take place in the Flower Art Museum of the 10th China Flower Expo Park.
The participating teams will design and construct their own container plant factory, with a 20 foot container size;
Before the commencement of the final, the competition organizing committee will entrust relevant institutions and experts to carry out training on the use of the smart agricultural growing management system and the Internet of Things equipment provided for the finalists, so that the finalists can better master the equipment and systems of the facility.
There are no mandatory requirements for the interior design of containers, and participating teams are encouraged to have a reasonable spatial layout and expand crop yields. However, the design must meet work requirements and be aesthetically pleasing, and can be replicated and promoted;
The equipment inside the box should meet the requirements of intelligence, with editable software and remote control;
Encourage participating teams to pay attention to the aesthetic design inside and outside the box, highlighting the characteristics of each participating team;
This competition is for hydroponic crop cultivation under pure artificial light environment. The crop variety and harvesting specifications are limited, and the planted products are required to meet the commodity level standards. The commodity level will be divided according to market requirements, and the yield will be converted.
Finals judging and on-site presentation
The final score calculation consists of four parts: design and construction (accounting for 35% of the total score weight), planting achievements (accounting for 35% of the total score weight), system stability and budget control (accounting for 20% of the total score weight), roadshows and text summaries (accounting for 10% of the total score weight).
The on-site defense is scheduled for December 2024, and the final team will present and summarize the competition process.
Each team will be limited to 45 minutes (including 30 minutes of speech time and 15 minutes of questioning and defense time) for the defense segment on commercialization and text summary.
Each participating team is required to prepare a detailed set of materials (in both Chinese and English) in any format (including concrete demo/video materials, proposal, and presentation PPT).
If you have any questions or need help, please contact the organizing committee at agriculture@pinduoduo.com