RomeCup 2026: how to present technology in a more open, interdisciplinary way that is closer to people’s lives
Women now make up the majority of Italian graduates; they achieve better academic results and take part more frequently in work placements and training programmes. Yet, when looking at STEM pathways, the gender gap remains deep and essentially unchanged.
According to the AlmaLaurea Gender Report 2026, women account for 41.1 per cent of graduates in STEM disciplines, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2015. The gap becomes even more evident in the fields of computer science and technology, where the proportion of women stands at 18.5 per cent, and in industrial and information engineering, where it reaches 27.4 per cent. Furthermore, all other things being equal, a woman is 71.7 per cent less likely to graduate with a STEM degree than a man.
During the RomeCup 2026, three leading figures from Italian research and academia – Luigia Carlucci Aiello, Tiziana Catarci and Francesca Cuomo – offered their insights into this gap, highlighting the impact of stereotypes, the value of informed choice and the need to connect different areas of knowledge. For Tiziana Catarci, the problem does not lie with girls’ aptitudes, but with the way in which technology, mathematics and computer science are presented from early childhood onwards. The notion that these are ‘male-dominated’ fields takes hold very early on, undermining confidence, curiosity and freedom of choice. It is no coincidence that the AlmaLaurea Report highlights how the gap in mathematical skills is already evident during a child’s school years and can be reinforced by social expectations and forms of self-deprecation.
The challenge, therefore, does not begin at university. Action must be taken earlier, as early as primary school, helping both girls and boys to recognise their own abilities without associating subjects, professions and talents with gender.
Luigia Carlucci Aiello, on the other hand, emphasises the value of making an informed choice. Truly understanding what different study programmes have to offer, realising how technology transforms everyday life, and being able to experiment directly with tools and applications are essential for making choices without being constrained by imposed models.
This is also the purpose of RomeCup: to introduce girls and boys to robotics and artificial intelligence through workshops, prototypes, meetings with researchers, career guidance and competitions. Technology thus becomes something to observe, question and build, not an abstract realm reserved for the few.
Cooperation between different fields of knowledge
Francesca Cuomo, Dean of the Faculty of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Statistics at Sapienza University of Rome, emphasises interdisciplinarity as a necessary condition for tackling technological transformations.
“In today’s world, interdisciplinarity – especially in the technological sphere – is of fundamental importance because it leads us to cooperate,” she explains. And cooperation, she adds, “is a social value that we must increasingly foster”.
Artificial intelligence, robotics and computer science can no longer be approached within rigid disciplinary boundaries. Technological challenges require not only diverse skills, but also the ability to listen to other points of view, share common ground and build solutions together.
For Cuomo, events such as the RomeCup allow young people to experience first-hand the true meaning of cooperation between different fields of knowledge. It is not merely a matter of acquiring technical knowledge, but of experiencing how different disciplines, experiences and perspectives can come together to tackle common problems.
When technology meets the humanities
According to Catarci, one of the most effective ways to increase female participation is to move beyond an overly rigid view of STEM disciplines. Artificial intelligence is not just about algorithms and programming: it involves language, logic, philosophy, psychology, rights, the environment and the organisation of society.
A significant example comes from the degree course in Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence at Sapienza University of Rome, where the number of male and female students is broadly balanced. When technology is presented as a tool for understanding and tackling social, economic and environmental problems – rather than merely as a technical field – it succeeds in attracting a wider range of experiences and perspectives.
Interdisciplinarity is not just about engaging more young women; it is essential for designing better technologies. Artificial intelligence systems and robots, after all, operate within contexts shaped by people, needs, relationships and inequalities. To understand their effects, we need scientific and technical expertise, but also humanistic and social perspectives.
A gap that persists in the workplace
The differences do not end with graduation. AlmaLaurea data show that even in STEM fields, which are characterised by high employment rates, women face less favourable conditions. Five years after graduation, men in STEM fields earn on average 15.4 per cent more than their female colleagues. Women are more likely to work on fixed-term contracts and are less likely to be appointed to positions of greater responsibility. It is a clear paradox: women achieve better academic results, are more likely to complete their studies on time and obtain higher final grades, yet this performance does not translate into equal professional opportunities.
This is why simply increasing enrolment figures is not enough. Action is needed throughout the entire pathway: regarding family and social expectations, career guidance, the language used to describe technology, the organisation of work, and the criteria by which skills, roles and responsibilities are recognised.
The reflections of Luigia Carlucci Aiello, Tiziana Catarci and Francesca Cuomo converge on one point: the gender gap in STEM is not the result of lower ability, but of conditioning that builds up over time and a representation of technology that remains far too narrow.
Overcoming this means offering girls real opportunities for hands-on experience, credible role models and contexts in which they can collaborate using diverse skills. It is not merely a question of bringing more women into computer science, engineering or robotics, but of building innovations that are more inclusive, more responsible and better attuned to the complexity of society.
