Marita Cheng

Marita Cheng is a leading pioneer of robotics, having forged a reputation for her advocacy for women in technology as the Founder of Robogals Global. Commended for demonstrating vision and leadership well beyond her years, Marita has also made headlines as the youngest Member of the Order of Australia, having made it her mission to inspire other young women to pursue careers in technology and robotics as the leader of Robogals. Having expanded Robogals throughout Australia, Japan, the UK and the US, Marita has taught over 100,000 women on the intricacies of robotics, now also highly sought after as an eloquent speaker to detail the future of artificial intelligence and robotics.

Back in 2007, Marita’s decorated career began as the Co-Founder and Sales Director of Nudge Pty Ltd, a leading SMS and phone call reminder service – created as an entry to the Melbourne University Entrepreneurs Challenge. In 2008, Marita began studying at Imperial College London, where she became the Founder of Imperial College Robotics Club, sparking her passion for robotics and machine learning, and the Founder of Robogals Global. Since then, Marita has worked as a New Enterprise Investment Fund Board Member for RMIT University, a Technology Advisory Board Member for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, a Board Member for the Foundation for Young Australians and a Board Member of the Victorian State Innovation Expert Panel. Most recently, Marita has become the Founder of aubot and Aipoly, two leading AI and robotics companies taking the world by storm.

As the Founder of aubot, Marita is determined to introduce robots to society that will aid people in their day-to-day lives. So far, aubot has helped people in the form of helping children with cancer to attend school, people with disabilities to attend work and the elderly to socialise. Such work has seen Marita recognised with awards such as 2012 Young Australian of the Year and on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Marita has also been named as one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes and her company Robogals has been awarded with the Global Engineering Deans Council Diversity in Engineering Award and the Grace Hopper Celebration’s Anita Borg Change Agent Award. In addition, Marita has also been named as the Cairns Young Citizen of the Year, commended for her commitments to extra-curricular activities and volunteering.

Now a highly sought-after robotics speaker, Marita is booked to share her expertise on artificial intelligence, engineering, societal change and the future of robotics. A seasoned speaker, Marita has already spoken at the International CEO Conference, the World Entrepreneurship Forum and the MIT Technology Review EmTech. With her revolutionary technology Aipoly translated into 23 languages and downloaded over 500,000 times, Marita’s influence on AI and society is exemplary. Pioneering research into affordable and transportable AI, Marita has formerly been invited to deliver the TEDx talks We Need to Teach Our Kids to be Makers and If the Blind Could See. When looking for an illustrious expert on robotics to speak at your next event, hire female STEM role model Marita Cheng now!