Nicosia, Cyprus. Thousands of visitors attended Robotex Cyprus 2026, the country’s largest robotics festival, held at the University of Cyprus Sports Centre on June 27-28, 2026. The event brought together hundreds of competitors and showcased developments in robotics, artificial intelligence, drones and STEAM education.
Competition and participation
The ninth Robotex Cyprus Educational and Sports Robotics Competition attracted 700 participants, including school pupils, university students and adults from across Cyprus. They competed in more than 20 robotics challenges, demonstrating technical knowledge, creativity and engineering skills.
Official representation
The event featured a message from Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou, delivered on his behalf by the ministry’s Director of Cybersecurity Marios Tziapouras.
Among those attending was Research and Innovation Foundation vice-president Andreas Efstathiou. The organisation supports Robotex Cyprus as its Diamond Sponsor, recognising the festival’s contribution to developing research and innovation skills among young people.
Opening remarks and international presence
Opening remarks were delivered by University of Cyprus Department of Computer Science chairman Chrysis Georgiou and Robotex Cyprus Scientific Committee member and IET Cyprus board member Fotini Georgiou, representing the event’s co-organisers.
The festival also welcomed Robotex International chief executive Nathan Metsala. His visit carried particular significance because Cyprus was the first country to establish Robotex as a national competition.
International finals announcement
Metsala announced that Robotex International 2026 will be held in South Korea, marking the first time the international competition will take place outside Estonia.
The winning teams from Cyprus secured the right to represent the country at the international finals, continuing a tradition of Cypriot teams achieving distinctions in recent years.
Projects and programme
Primary school teams presented robotics projects based on the theme “Sustainable Development, Green Island,” with many using artificial intelligence applications to propose solutions to environmental challenges.
Saturday’s competition programme included Line Following, Folkrace, Maze Solving, Bowling and Archery. Two drone competitions were also held, one focused on autonomous flight and another introducing a new programming challenge.