What does 5G really mean for our future, beyond faster phones and streaming? At Mines Nancy, during the Drone Grand Prix 5G, that question came to life in the most hands-on, playful, and unexpected ways.
Organized under the Future Networks Academy (FNA) Erasmus+ project, the event brought together over 150 participants for an afternoon where technology, education, and entertainment collided. Pupils from Lycée Frédéric Chopin, Collège Alfred Mézières, Lycée Robert Schuman, Collège Pierre Adt, Collège Louis Armand, and Collège Nicolas Untersteller joined students and researchers from the University of Lorraine, alongside international guests from FNA’s partner universities: Université du Luxembourg, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, TU Delft, and Politecnico di Milano.
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The campus was buzzing with interactive workshops and the Future Networks Academy exhibition — a series of engaging panels explaining how 5G and future technologies are changing our world, from smart mobility and energy to cybersecurity and robotics.
Children guided mini robot dogs through mazes, built cup-and-string telephones, and decrypted puzzles at the Secret Message table. Others followed the Data Journey, tracing how information travels across digital networks. These workshops, designed and led by Mines Nancy engineering students, made complex ideas both tangible and fun.
For those curious about where it all began, the LorHisTel association offered a journey through telecom history — from Chappe’s semaphore arms to Minitel servers, flashing SOS messages, and vintage France Telecom equipment. A reminder that before 5G, there was a whole world of ingenuity that got us here.
The main event was the 5G drone-car race, where student teams from France, Spain, and the Netherlands raced homemade ground drones — each one remotely driven using a real industrial 5G network. The crowd cheered as the drones zigzagged across the outdoor track, culminating in a well-earned victory for the team from UPM Madrid.
The event ended with a festive award ceremony and the sense that something important had happened — not just a tech demo, but a window into the networks shaping our future, made accessible to all.
