The Grand Défi competition for students at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Cluny took place on October 18 and 19, 2024. The 160 first-year students in Grande Ecole Engineering Programme gathered for a 24-hour community service project to renovate the Délaissés des Courses parking lot located next to the Cluny racetrack.
The aim of this event is to stimulate the technical, managerial, and logistical skills of engineering students, as well as to enable them to get involved in their adopted city.
A 24-hour challenge
Given its duration—from Friday at 7 p.m. to Saturday at 7 p.m.—and the number of students involved, completing the Grand Défi requires first-year students to demonstrate values of mutual aid, fraternity, and cohesion, values that will serve them well in their future lives as executives in tomorrow's industry. The event is a key part of the orientation period for first-year students and helps to bring their class together.
The Grand Défi 2024 project
The project involved renovating a parking lot in the town of Cluny. The aim was to make it more welcoming and functional. To achieve this, the students had to carry out earthworks. They also took care of refreshing the vegetation in the surrounding area. To do this, they had 68 tons of raw materials at their disposal, as well as help from the residents of Cluny and local businesses, who provided them with tools and equipment.
Serving the city and the people of Cluny
The event is being organized in collaboration with the city of Cluny. A budget has been allocated for materials, and preliminary project designs have been initiated between the city's technical department and the two second-year students. Fifteen parking spaces are now available, unpaved with permeable ground that allows water to infiltrate.
Most of them have never done any masonry work before, explains Pierre Geoffrey, a second-year student who, along with others, is responsible for supervising the Grand Défi for the new class. As the day progresses, they become more and more independent, helping each other and really wanting to succeed with the project.
Image source: City of Cluny
