Business students turn matchmaker to help pandemic-hit SMEs

Camille Zivré and Lucille Collet, who have been friends since meeting five years ago as first-year students at HEC Paris, decided to run their own hackathon to give students and graduates a chance to modestly contribute to finding solutions to some of the many problems presented by the current crisis. Backed by HEC and fellow French higher-education institutes SciencesPo and Ecole Polytechnique, the event gathered 1,400 hackers and mentors, who developed 103 projects in 48 hours to support health professionals, governments, businesses and local communities, writes the Financial Times.