Vanessa Quinto’s report covers the event dedicated to young people, augmented intelligence and cutting-edge technologies
RomeCup 2026 comes to Rai platforms with a report by Vanessa Quinto, entitled RomeCup 2026: “What’s next?” The event where intelligence and talent come together returns, broadcast on Rai News on 28 April and repeated on 29 April on Buongiorno Regione Lazio and Tg3.
Organised in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome, the 19th edition of RomeCup reaffirms the mission of the event promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale: to focus on the younger generation and support them in understanding major technological transformations, through training, guidance, competitions, workshops, a demonstration area and opportunities to engage with universities, research centres, companies and institutions.
In the Rai report, RomeCup is described as a major innovation event dedicated to young people, launched in 2007 to address the country’s challenges and now increasingly focused on cutting-edge technologies. The title chosen for this edition, “What’s next? Intelligence and talent in dialogue”, captures the essence of the programme: fostering dialogue between artificial intelligence, robotics, the humanities and young talent, within a human-centred development framework.
Among the protagonists featured in the report is Virgilio, the Sapienza University robot specialising in football robotics, a symbol of ambitious research looking to the future: the international goal of the RoboCup is to stage, by 2050, a match between autonomous humanoid robots and FIFA world champions. A challenge which, as the report highlights, stimulates advanced research in robotics and artificial intelligence and confirms the value of Italian expertise in this sector.
The central theme of RomeCup 2026 is augmented intelligence: not a technology that replaces people, but a paradigm for amplifying human potential and steering innovation towards inclusion, sustainability and social wellbeing. This is the vision that runs through the entire event, where every experience – from the competition to the workshop, from meeting researchers to engaging with businesses – becomes part of a process of growth.
“RomeCup was created to promote youth excellence in our country in cutting-edge sectors that will determine Italy’s competitiveness”, explains General Manager Mirta Michilli in the report. A mission that the Fondazione Mondo Digitale has been pursuing for almost twenty years, building an ecosystem in which even mistakes become learning opportunities and innovation is measured by its ability to generate skills, trust and a shared future.
