They had 24 hours to come up with creative and innovative solutions to the issues raised by member companies of the Avenia cluster, the only competitiveness cluster for the subsoil industries (of which UniLaSalle is a member). A real marathon that did not dampen the spirits of the Lasallian participants, 9 fifth-year engineering students in Geosciences and Environment and 6 double-degree students, who came out tired but delighted with the experience, like Julie Maudet:

"Everything went very well! We are all very happy with this experience; it allowed us to push our limits psychologically and physically and we all came out winners. The 24 hours were very enriching from an intellectual point of view with the subject leaders who were there each time to push us further in our ideas! Reflection and perseverance were the order of the day. All the teams succeeded in the challenge of proposing and presenting innovative solutions on a subject in 24 hours."

Beyond the physical and intellectual challenge, the 24 Hours of Innovation at the Center of the Earth is a great opportunity to work collaboratively with students from other higher education institutions.

"The team I was on placed 3rd on the podium," Julie continued. "I was with two students from the Montpellier master's program and two students from IFP, including Mathilde (081 alumni of the school). Our subject was the integrity of a CO2 storage and the durability of the transmission of information in the very long term on this storage."

This edition of the 24 Hours of Innovation at the Center of the Earth was all the more satisfying for UniLaSalle since the sponsor was none other than Nicolas Pélissier, a UniLaSalle alumnus who graduated in 2007.