During the first edition of the Drone Defense Hackathon, a competition born out of collaboration between the French Ministry of Defense and private sector players, held at the Grand Palais as part of the Adopt AI Summit, several teams from De Vinci Higher Education took part in the technological challenges proposed.
DaVinciHive, LéoFly, DaVinciBot, and the Proteus DeVinci association contributed to this event dedicated to defense, security, and autonomous technologies.
The Drone Defense Hackathon: a hackathon focused on the operational uses of drones
The Drone Defense Hackathon is a competition resulting from a collaboration between the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and several private actors, including the artificial intelligence consulting firm Artefact. Its first edition was held from November 24 to 26, 2025, at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Organized by the Defense Innovation Agency, Aspire, and Artefact, the Drone Defense Hackathon brought together nearly 200 participants divided into seven teams, who spent three days working on issues related to defense, civil security, and crisis management.
The projects developed were evaluated according to their operational relevance, technical feasibility, and ability to be integrated into constrained environments.
This event enabled teams to work closely with institutional, industrial, and operational players in the sector, promoting direct confrontation between technological concepts and field requirements.
The event was supervised by a jury composed of institutional representatives and industry experts, including General Bruno Baratz from the Future Combat Command, who provided a strategic and operational perspective on the projects developed.
DaVinciHive: a modular payload based on a multimodal approach
The DaVinciHive team focused its project on designing a modular payload that is compatible with different types of drones, as well as robots and other mobile platforms. This focus emerged following discussions with professionals in the field, notably the Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP).
Their feedback highlighted several operational constraints, such as the difficulty of quickly detecting and locating victims during major events, as well as the limitations of thermal cameras in degraded or obscured environments.
DaVinciHive at the Drone Défense Hackathon in the Grand Palais
In response, DaVinciHive developed a prototype combining several complementary sensors: a thermal camera, a gas sensor dedicated to detecting leaks or chemical threats, and a signal detection module (Wi-Fi in particular) enabling the geolocation of people when thermal imaging is no longer sufficient.
The team also trained an artificial intelligence model capable of identifying civilians, rescue workers, and military personnel within a crowd, using a dataset designed specifically for the project.
The entire system was integrated into a DJI Matrice 4E drone provided for the competition, while maintaining a vendor-independent approach that promotes the adaptability and reproducibility of the concept.
LéoFly: designing a complete drone under time constraints
For its part, LéoFly chose to design an entirely new drone, developed from start to finish in three days. In a context where most teams relied on existing platforms, this approach aimed to master the entire technical chain and meet cost and usage constraints.
LéoFly team
The final prototype is capable of flying steadily, maintaining a set altitude, and detecting vehicles, including tanks, thanks to an artificial intelligence system trained during the hackathon. Discussions with professionals from the armed forces helped refine technical choices and better integrate operational requirements from the design phase onwards.
The project was presented to General Bruno Baratz, Commander of Combat Futur, who provided the team with direct feedback on how well their approach aligned with expectations in the field.
DaVinciBot: autonomous robotics and technological sovereignty issues
Members of DaVinciBot also participated in the Drone Defense Hackathon. Taking on the challenge entitled “Autonomy for Action,” the team worked on developing and improving an autonomous system in an operational context.
DaVinciBot also participated in the Drone Defense Hackathon.
Throughout the hackathon, DaVinciBot benefited from the support of mentors from Aspire, NEODE Systems, the Future Combat Command (CCF), Alta Ares, Safran, TEKEVER, and Scalian, as well as technical support from DJI and OptiTrack. These exchanges helped to anchor the project in concrete issues and refine technological choices within a limited time frame.
Beyond the competitive framework, this participation provided an opportunity to compare visions of autonomy, engage in dialogue with professionals in the field, and contribute to discussions on technological sovereignty.
DaVinciBot is thus continuing its commitment to the challenges of robotics and autonomy in operational environments, in collaboration with industrial and institutional players who share these objectives.
Proteus DeVinci: a student organisation dedicated to defence and sovereignty issues
Also involved in the Drone Defence Hackathon, the association has now adopted the official name Proteus DeVinci.
Its mission is to promote, from a student and ethical perspective, in-depth study, applied research and awareness of defence, intelligence, sovereignty and security issues at national and international level.
Positioned as one of the leading European student communities engaged in defence technology issues, Proteus DeVinci is part of a dynamic effort to mobilise the skills, creativity and commitment of students to respond to emerging defence and security challenges.
This approach highlights the role of the new generation of engineers and specialists in analysing, designing and testing technological solutions tailored to future operational needs.
Proteus DeVinci thus offers a structured framework that promotes the acquisition of specialised knowledge, the development of technical and analytical skills, and exchanges with industry experts. Its participation in the Drone Defence Hackathon is part of this approach, directly linked to concrete issues and institutional and industrial players in the field.
A collective dynamic in contact with institutional and industrial players
The participation of DaVinciHive, LéoFly, DaVinciBot and Proteus DeVinci in this first edition of the Drone Defence Hackathon is part of a dynamic of collaboration with players in the fields of defence, security and technological innovation.
The event also promoted exchanges between teams with complementary profiles, including Dronera, composed of doctoral students from ONERA – The French Aerospace Lab, winner of the challenge in question.
Organised with the support of numerous institutional and industrial partners, this hackathon provided a concrete working framework for comparing technological approaches with real-world uses and operational constraints.
More inormation about ESILV’s student associations
This post was last modified on 13 January 2026 5:15 pm