Among the many pedagogical strategies for improving students' motivation, life skills, and know-how, project-based pedagogy is often cited as an example. It is in this context that a challenge entitled "New digital processes for the plant of the future" was launched in 2019 for engineering students learning the specialty "mechatronics and robotics". Seven teams are drawn at random and made up of 5th-year students based at the HEI Campus Centre engineering school, therefore, they took part in this challenge. The technical issues to be addressed were vast because they had to meet certain needs and services dedicated to issues related to the digital industry or industry 4.0. This paper details the pedagogical strategy that has been adopted, the technical specifications and the planning to be respected. It also proposes some significant results. A measurement tool concerning the efficiency of the method has also been implemented. The results thus obtained have enabled us to refine our feedback on the challenge and thus refine our educational policy.