With an estimated 500,000 visitors coming to the eight games in Atlanta over the next two months, the 2026 World Cup will be one of the biggest sporting events to come to the city since the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino likened the scale of each game to that of a Super Bowl. The success of a tournament that large will rely heavily on technology, affecting everything from the players on the pitch, all the way to viewers at home.

On top of the state-of-the-art technology used at many large events, this World Cup will also see the debut of new technology. At the center of much of it will be electrical and computer engineering.

Experts from the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) weigh in on how the field is enabling the technology behind the world’s largest sporting event.

At the 2022 World Cup Final, Lionel Messi’s opening goal generated over 500 terabytes of video data streaming globally per second and triggered roughly 25 million simultaneous requests as viewers’ devices pulled video from streaming servers in real time.

Researchers, like Sundaresan, in the recently established Center for Wireless Intelligence are working on the kinds of systems designed for exactly these conditions. The center focuses on next‑generation wireless technologies, including AI‑enabled autonomous networks and intelligent edge computing, and is building one of the largest wireless research testbeds in the country.

Within that effort, Sundaresan studies how dense wireless networks can operate reliably at scale. His work focuses on coordinating data traffic across large numbers of access points and antenna systems, dynamically reallocating bandwidth, and reducing interference as demand shifts. 

In recent research, his group has demonstrated how organizing distributed antenna and access point systems more efficiently can significantly improve throughput in crowded environments, a challenge that closely mirrors what happens inside a packed stadium.

Their work includes physics-aware AI systems that flag cyber attacks by identifying commands that make no physical sense. This compliments the team’s efforts to expose vulnerable devices before attackers do.

“Many of the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that run physical equipment are actually unintentionally reachable from the open internet,” Zououz said.

The lab's PLCHound algorithm uses AI to identify exposed PLCs across the internet, revealing far more than previously known, including devices in airports, hospitals, and government systems. 

Another research angle being utilized is realistic decoy systems, or "honeypots," that mimic real control systems to draw attackers out and expose their tactics before they reach actual equipment.

“The honeypots essentially turn an attacker's own reconnaissance against them,” Zonouz said.

Put together, this research helps critical systems detect, withstand, and quickly recover from a cyber strike, the kind of resilience a host city needs when the whole world is watching.

Unlike conventional RFID, which only shows whether a tag is in a general area, it can pinpoint location with far greater precision. It also continues to work when crowds thicken, unlike cameras or facial recognition that depend on a clear line of sight.

“Moving to millimeter wave provides centimeter-level localization, high read throughput for venues like Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and reduced interference in crowded environments,” Costa Ahuir said.

Ahead of the tournament, FIFA completed full digital scans of each player. In less than a second, the system captures millions of data points with sub-centimeter accuracy to create detailed 3D avatars.

These models are combined with live camera tracking that records player movement dozens of times per second, feeding a semi-automated system that supports faster Video Assistant Referee (VAR) decisions.

Additional real-time data feeding the game’s live digital twin comes from rugged sensors in the ball and on-body fitness data from the players. Post processing can provide analytical insights for individual teams as they further refine gameplay. 

“As the sport begins to integrate high fidelity technologies into live play, optimization techniques from injury prevention to tactical formation modeling will emerge on the pitch," Denitsa said. "Patterns can be pulled from even more sources as teams begin to increasingly rely on this information. Naturally, these insights will need to be carefully managed and governed in the interest of preserving ‘the beautiful game.'"

How can biometric data be used to help player performance?

Wearable devices to track player health have become a fixture in sporting events, and the World Cup is no different.

“Data from wearables can be used for workload tracking, basically how hard an athlete worked on the field,” Professor Omer Inan said, who researches a variety of wearable technologies. “Examining heart rate patterns against specific movements can quantify strain, for example. If heart rate patterns are unusual for the activity level and type, the body is possibly experiencing too much strain.”

Depending on the product, most sensors being worn by athletes at the World Cup are able to measure heart rate data in two ways.

Chest straps use an electrocardiogram to track the electrical output of the heart whenever it beats. This is the most accurate method, according to Inan.
 

Inan’s lab has completed research that found heart rate and actigraphy data from soldiers doing ruck marches at Fort Benning could be used to predict heat injuries.

“We were able to look at the patterns and see who was at a higher risk of exertional heat stroke with a pretty long predictive window,” Inan said. “So, this data can also be useful when it comes to analyzing heat strain in athletes and soldiers.”