Spoke at a Lenovo event by myself for 12 minutes and then on a panel with Ashton Kutcher. Met with Hollywood’s Steve Jobs and had a yarn about robots, AI, VR, AR and bionic people! (Why stop at 20/20 vision?)


Spoke at MIT's conference in Singapore, EmTech. Other speakers in my session spoke about autonomous robotic cargo ships, advances in drones and studying nature to make a single robot that can both roll down inclines and walk along flat surfaces!

How amazing are the gardens in Singapore? When I'm surrounded by beautiful nature like this, I love getting my notebook out and writing copious notes and plans.

... And the gardens are just as spectacular in the evening! It's like the movie Avatar!
![]()
Spent the entire Sunday working in the garage with Garth Bradbeer and Tom Cooper working on a robotic prototype. We worked until 1am that night, and many nights before and after... and we achieved our goal for the year! :)

I was awarded the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) Diversity Award for my work with Robogals. It was sponsored by Airbus. Here is a photo of me accepting the award from Airbus 380's Executive Vice President Engineering, Charles Champion, and Global Engineering Deans Council Chair, Professor John Beynon.
This article by the Courier Mail does a very good job of entertainingly summarising the Award.

Following that, I spoke at the World Engineering Education Forum, hosted by GEDC, alongside my fellow finalists for the Award.

Playing with robots in the office with Kyle van Dordrecht. We timed ourselves putting a robotics kit together... then we modified the kit.


Forbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.
I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.
Life gets busy. You say 'yes' to things to fill up your life and your time and pretty soon your days are filled with back-to-back commitments. And...
Do you ever think to yourself that you can’t do this? That you’re not smart enough? That you haven’t practised enough? That you’re not ready? That...
If you tell people you are going to be at X location at X time, people take your word for that. If you’re not there, they decide that next time,...
I first learnt about the impostor syndrome at the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing in 2011. A Stanford student asked a question...
One of the biggest muscles to exercise shouldn't be getting yourself motivated to not procrasinate. Sure, procrastination is a big issue, and...
For National Science Week, I spoke at the Super STEM Careers event about my career in STEM.
Channel 7’s The House of Wellness TV got in touch to find out what I’m up to. We talked robots, Aipoly and more robots.
I write all my blog posts on scrap paper. I printed so many speeches last year that I have all these A4 scrap sheets of paper that just have...
Spending long, snug evenings with your significant other. Making time to look after your family. Jesting, gabbing and chilling with friends. Building...
Whatever anyone does, whatever anyone says, is aligned with how they see the world. And so decisions people make are always perfect for them in the...