Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) defied the Covid: for the very first time, 660 first year students of the Grande Ecole Program (PGE) were gathered on September 14, 2020 in the large auditorium. Masks and hydro-alcoholic gel were not mandatory because the auditorium was located on GEM new digital campus. The meeting was to launch of the 2020 Back-to-School challenge on six stakes combining technology and society, in addition to a reflection on the impacts of the image portrayals through a digital avatar.
To do this, GEM, in the frame of Nanoelec, has designed an escape game which takes place within the digital campus co-developed with Virbela – Laval Virtual. The students’ mission was to propose a “New Deal to think and impact the world” project. They have to consider the six societal challenges identified during the health crisis and the priorities of the local territorial ecosystem: health, energy, education, city (mobility), work and food. “Our new students had ten days to prepare to pitch their “new deal” project in front of a jury in an exhibition of 144 virtual stands”, Sylvie Blanco (GEM), co director of #Nanoelec program on Human Capital & Education Engineering.