To my great surprise, I was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) this year, announced on the Queen’s Birthday Weekend. This means I now get to write my name as "Marita Cheng AM".  Most people who get this recognition are over 40 years older than me - the person awarded after me was 88 years old!

In the Australian honours system, appointments to the Order of Australia confer the highest recognition for outstanding achievement and service - mine was “for significant service to science and technology, particularly to robotics.” Consideration of a nomination can take between 18 months and two years - so I would have been nominated in 2017!

Over the past 11 years, I’ve been very lucky to have worked with amazing people across my teams at Robogals, Aubot, Aipoly, and Saxton to impact the lives of millions of people around the world. Thank you to you all - I couldn't have done this without you.

Growing up in regional Far North Queensland, I didn’t know much about the Order of Australia recognition at all, but I’m very honored to be a part of this group now and will wear my badge proudly.

I try to continuously challenge myself and put myself in situations where I am enthusiastically learning and growing.

I don’t know who nominated me - I found out when I got it - so it was an unexpected surprise and a lovely acknowledgment of all the work that I’ve done so far. It definitely inspires me to continue to be courageous and bold going forwards!

The Australian wrote more about my inclusion in the Order of Australia here:  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/changing-the-world-with-robots/news-story/89610fe46c0cbefa6b4a8c64b6d92bbe

These awards were designed “to recognise Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or meritorious service.” There are many people I respect and admire who have received the post-nominal in the past, and who are receiving their post-nominal alongside me.  You can see the full list of my fellow Queen's Birthday Weekend awardees here:  https://www.theage.com.au/national/extraordinary-australians-honoured-in-annual-queen-s-birthday-ceremonies-20190606-p51v6q.html?fbclid=IwAR1Js-kFAp34JIYT7mpUhXhMaZkLlxJdjwT40_0_qW1zzocpcUkc-Hhwn90

On 17 September 2019, the Governor of Victoria presented me with the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) medal at Government House in Victoria.

After months of careful, hard work by the team, we have launched a new Aubot website!  Have a look at our new website here!

In addition to that - the team filmed a new video of "Teleport in action". Have a look at the fun video here!

The NBN Stempreneur Initiative is a virtual learning program for kids in eight regional schools. It shows young people the breadth of opportunities that STEM education offers them, how those skills relate to entrepreneurship, and the important role of technology and connectivity in creating opportunities for regional, rural and remote Australia.

After 12 weeks of virtual learning about STEM and entrepreneurship, students then had two months to develop an idea for a social enterprise that’s enabled by technology that would benefit their local community.

As the NBN STEMpreneur ambassador, I acted as a mentor to the schools as they prepared their STEM-related ideas.

The schools involved and their entries included:

Larapinta Primary School, Alice Springs, NT
Idea: TINT (Tourist Information Northern Territory)
Designed for NT-visiting tourists, TINT provides advice on food and water provisions, and the dangers of local animals. The app and website can also connect users to emergency services, and features location tracking via satellite.

Parkwood Primary School, Perth, WA
Idea: Kids Mental Help
A website to support the mental wellbeing of young people, Kids Mental Help includes a chat function and a mascot keyring for students as a reminder of the resource available to them.

Parramatta State School, Cairns, QLD
Class 6A
Idea: The Hope Shack
A mobile hub to support homeless people in Cairns, including access to washing machines, internet to help with finances and employment, and other essential services.

Class 6B
Idea: R4 – Reef Rubbish Removal Robot
Designed in the shape of a whale shark, R4’s ‘mouth’ collects rubbish via a net system allowing animals to swim through. Solar powered and fitted with a camera, R4 data can be accessed in real-time by the public to increase awareness of ocean pollution.

Para Hills Primary School, Adelaide, SA
Idea: Fun Time Bin
Gamifying responsible rubbish disposal, Fun Time Bin scans and sorts rubbish according to general waste, paper and plastic, or glass recyclables, building a database of the rubbish being collected.

Canadian Lead Primary, Ballarat, VIC
Idea: Clean Crew Bin Solution
A self-sustaining digital bin powered by solar energy, the Clean Crew Bin Solution encourages communities to scan rubbish in exchange for rewards redeemable at local retailers.

Islington Primary School, Newcastle, NSW
Idea: Air Aware
Concerned with air pollution from uncovered trains travelling from coal mines, Air Aware provides community members with real-time air quality information via app and website.

Victoria Park State School, Mackay, QLD
Idea: Little Litter Legends
To encourage responsible rubbish disposal, the Little Litter Legends app rewards users by earning points that can be traded for clothing and accessories.

Bowen Road Primary, Hobart, TAS
Idea: Fireflies
To help firefighters combat blazes, Fireflies is a remote sensing autonomous vehicle (aka drone) that flies into low visibility areas to convey vital information back to emergency services.

(You can read more about the schools and the ideas they presented here).

From the impressive ideas presented, it was very clear that these students are very concerned about the environment, with six of the nine ideas in that category.  Four of those ideas were about disposing of rubbish correctly (Little Litter Legends, Clean Crew Bin, Fun-Time Bin, and R4 (Reef Rubbish Removal Robot)), one idea about improving air quality in their town (Air Aware), and one idea about helping firefighters control bushfires (Fireflies).  The other three ideas demonstrated concern for people's wellbeing whether that be other people's survival (T.I.N.T and ensuring tourists in NT have enough water to drink while venturing into the desert), ensuring kids are in the right frame of mind to learn at school (Kids Mental Help), or that homeless people can access facilities easily (The Hope Shack).

The ideas were all very innovative and presented very creatively through videos shot at the kids' schools.  After much deliberation, the judges decided the winner of NBN STEMpreneur was Bowen Road Primary.  The judges liked that Bowen Road Primary spent a lot of time interviewing firefighters, people who work with drones, and other emergency services, in order to create a solution that would solve the problem they identified.

It was such a pleasure to mentor these kids and then see their creative solutions at the end of the process. I particularly liked it when the kids found problems in their local community that were real and specific, giving them constraints to be creative within. Well done to everyone involved on a great initiative!

Aubot has created an instagram page with fun photos of Teleport!  Check them out here!

Growing up, I read stories about technology being created in San Francisco. So I was truly honoured when I was named an inaugural Asia Society Change Agent West in San Francisco, in front of 350 friends of the Asia Society​, alongside Roya Mahboob​ and the Afghan Girls Robotics team, global Hep B advocate Dr Sam So and “the Father of Fibre Optics” Dr. Narinder Kapany. Thank you Asia Society Northern California​ - I am truly humbled by the recognition!

Below is a video of my acceptance speech.