An emlyon team competing for the global finals of the Harvard health hackathon
After winning the French edition of the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab (HSIL) Hackathon, the EpiWatch team, made up of emlyon students, is continuing its international momentum. Now ranked among the top 30 teams worldwide, they are moving closer to the final stages, set to take place on Harvard’s campus in Boston.
A team of Master of Management students reaches the global top 30 with a public health decision-support solution
Organized by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the HSIL Hackathon brings together thousands of innovators each year—students, researchers, healthcare professionals, and entrepreneurs—to address real-world challenges aimed at transforming health systems through innovation and artificial intelligence. Hosted on the emlyon business school campus for its French edition in 2026, the competition highlighted a particularly promising team: EpiWatch.
Comprising El Hadji Moudo Macina, Geoffroy Sanchez, Alexandra Baron, and Sacha Cohen—two of whom are students in the Master in Management - Grande École (MiM) through a dual degree with École des Mines de Saint-Étienne—the team brings together complementary skill sets. Together, they developed EpiWatch: an AI-powered early-warning and decision-support solution designed to anticipate cholera outbreak risks. Their system leverages multiple data sources to detect weak signals, prioritize high-risk areas, and enable public health stakeholders to act earlier and more effectively in the field. Designed as a practical decision-support tool, EpiWatch addresses critical global health challenges.
EpiWatch is building an AI-based early-warning and decision-support layer to help public health teams anticipate cholera risk and prioritize field response before outbreaks escalate.
After winning the French finals, the team has continued its journey at the international level, now ranking among the top 30 teams worldwide. From over 1,500 teams initially competing, the cohort was successively reduced to 93 teams for Bootcamp I, then 50 for Bootcamp II. EpiWatch is now among the 30 teams selected for the “Venture Building Immersion” program, representing an approximate 2% acceptance rate. The team is now preparing to defend its solution in the next stages of the competition, with the global finals in sight.
Having qualified for Demo Day on June 16 in Boston! Now, the final push: earning our spot on stage to pitch to investors.
Beyond the outcome of the competition and this outstanding achievement, the experience fully embodies emlyon business school’s action-based learning approach: learning by engaging with real-world challenges in a demanding international environment, alongside academic, industry, and economic experts. It also reflects the School’s strategic positioning in the health vertical, driven by the Healthcare Innovation, Technology & Society Institute, which promotes an integrated approach combining education, research, and innovation to transform health ecosystems.
This globally oriented project also highlights the strength and high level of the academic partnership with École des Mines de Saint-Étienne through dual-degree programs. In this context, the combination of management and engineering expertise proves to be a key asset for the two students involved, enabling them to design solutions that are both technologically robust and economically viable, with tangible impact on health systems.
The Mines Saint-Étienne x emlyon dual degree means two schools, two cultures, and two ways of thinking. This combination is exactly what enabled us to build a project like EpiWatch. Our program provided us with the two essential skill sets we needed: developing the technical engine and connecting it to real-world applications.