Key highlights from Ultralytics at Maker Faire Rome 2025

Last month, on October 17th, our team spent the day at Maker Faire Rome 2025. We’ve attended other maker events in the past, including Maker Faire Shenzhen, and the event in Rome carried the same strong sense of community and curiosity.

The event took place at the Gazometro Ostiense, where Maker Faire Rome: The European Edition welcomed visitors for the 13th time. The industrial setting, combined with the mix of students, researchers, companies, and hobbyists, created an atmosphere that was both open and inspiring.

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Maker Faire Rome has grown into a key meeting point for Europe’s innovation community. It brings together projects across electronics, AI, robotics, digital manufacturing, agritech, and education, while also giving space to young creators who are exploring technology for the first time. This made it an especially exciting environment for Ultralytics, as many teams were experimenting with computer vision and applying AI to solve real problems.

It was a great opportunity to reconnect with partners, meet new collaborators, and see how Vision AI is being adopted across different fields. The mix of creativity and practical experimentation made the day both insightful and energizing.

In this recap, we’ll highlight the moments and insights that made Maker Faire Rome 2025 such an inspiring experience for our team. Let’s get started!

A look at Maker Faire Rome over the years

Maker Faire Rome has become one of the most important annual gatherings for innovation in Europe. What started more than a decade ago as a local celebration of creativity has grown into a large, international event that attracts makers, students, startups, researchers, and public institutions from across the region.

Each year, the fair brings together a wide range of disciplines. Visitors can explore projects in areas from AI to gaming and education. Alongside the exhibitions, the event also hosts workshops, talks, and hands-on labs designed to help people learn new skills and experiment with emerging technologies.

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One of the defining features of Maker Faire Rome is how accessible it is. The fair’s open call system invites anyone, from first-time creators to established research groups, to submit their ideas for consideration. A panel reviews each submission based on criteria like originality, technical impact, and social value, ensuring a diverse mix of voices and perspectives every year.

The event is promoted by the Rome Chamber of Commerce and organized by Innova Camera, an agency focused on supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. It also showcases Italy’s commitment to bridging tradition, craftsmanship, and new digital skills, something often described as the “Made in Italy” approach to innovation.

Over time, the fair has become more than just an exhibition. It’s a space where industries meet students, where research connects with real-world needs, and where creativity and technical expertise come together. That blend is what makes Maker Faire Rome a unique stop on the global maker calendar.

Innovating while putting human ethics first

Another thing that sets Maker Faire Rome apart is its focus on human-centered innovation, where technology is designed to support people, communities, and meaningful problem-solving. Across the fair, projects didn’t just focus on what’s technically possible. 

They focused on accessibility, sustainability, education, and social impact. From assistive technologies to tools for greener cities and more inclusive classrooms, many of the prototypes we saw were designed with real communities and real needs in mind.

This human-centered approach also reflects a broader European view of innovation, where ethics, culture, and collaboration sit alongside code and hardware. Schools team up with universities, families talk to entrepreneurs, and institutions back grassroots experiments that mightn't fit into a traditional roadmap yet. 

For Ultralytics, it was encouraging to see AI and computer vision embedded in this kind of context: not as abstract algorithms, but as building blocks for projects that aim to empower people and make everyday life better.

An overview of Maker Faire Rome 2025

This year’s edition of Maker Faire Rome brought a noticeable sense of momentum. Exhibitors introduced new prototypes, universities showcased their latest research, and partner companies revealed updated hardware and tools for makers. 

Many teams focused on practical applications of emerging technologies, showing how topics like AI, robotics, agritech, and sustainable design are moving from early experimentation into real use cases. This year also saw a strong presence from European institutions, industry partners, and educational programs, creating more opportunities for collaboration than ever before. 

Whether visitors were exploring student-built vehicles, testing interactive installations, or attending technical demos, the fair offered a clear snapshot of how rapidly the maker ecosystem is evolving.

Ultralytics at Maker Faire Rome: Inside Europe’s maker ecosystem

At this year’s fair, our team was represented by Francesco Mattioli, our Lead Partnership Engineer, and Nuvola Ladi, our Digital Content Manager. Throughout the day, they had the chance to engage directly with makers, students, hardware teams, and researchers who are shaping Europe’s fast-growing innovation landscape.

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Much of our time was spent speaking with teams already experimenting with Vision AI or exploring how Ultralytics could support their projects. We also met many visitors who were encountering our tools for the first time and were curious about how Ultralytics YOLO models can fit into their work.

These interactions made it clear how interconnected the European maker ecosystem has become. Whether discussing hardware integrations, student-led research, or creative hobbyist builds, the level of openness and collaboration stood out and made the event especially rewarding for our team.

Connecting with collaborators at a European innovation hub

One of the great things about global events like Maker Faire Rome is getting to catch up with partners and collaborators from across the maker and AI ecosystem. Collaboration has always been at the core of how we work, and events like this remind us how much progress comes from sharing ideas and building together.

For instance, we reconnected with partners like STMicroelectronics, a major semiconductor provider, and Raspberry Pi, our single-board computer partner widely used across the maker community. We also spent time with M5Stack, another collaborator in the maker and AI ecosystem, and discussed how their modular hardware is being used by teams experimenting with embedded systems and rapid prototyping.

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Autonomous racing powered by Ultralytics YOLO models

A particularly memorable part of the day was our conversation with Sapienza Corse, the autonomous racing team from Università La Sapienza. The student group develops autonomous racing cars for Formula Student competitions and is known for creating FastCharge, Italy’s first self-driving car.

As part of their system, the team uses Ultralytics YOLO models for real-time object detection on the track. Ultralytics YOLO enables the vehicle to identify cones, interpret course boundaries, and support path planning during autonomous runs. 

This computer vision pipeline works alongside deep reinforcement learning methods responsible for high-level control, including steering, throttle, and braking. It was a great example of how practical, easy-to-use AI tools can power complex tasks in competitive and fast-moving environments.

Interesting tech competitions at the event

Alongside the exhibitions, Maker Faire Rome hosted a range of competitions that highlighted how technology, creativity, and sustainability come together across the maker community. These initiatives gave students, educators, and innovators a chance to showcase ideas with real-world impact.

Here are a few of the standout competitions from this year’s event:

• MakeITCircular: It was a challenge focused on reuse, repair, and co-design, encouraging projects built around circular economy principles.
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• STEAM in Minecraft: This competition featured 122 projects from 264 school classes, where students used Minecraft Education to design AI-powered solutions for a more sustainable future.
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• Top of the PID 2025: It is a competition celebrating student-led innovations in AI and Industry 4.0, with a strong focus on digital skills and sustainability.

Key takeaways

From autonomous racing to classroom AI tools, Maker Faire Rome showcased innovation in many forms. It was exciting to hear how teams are experimenting with Vision AI and pushing new ideas forward. We loved meeting everyone who stopped to chat with us, and we can’t wait to see you at the next event!

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