MARITA CHENG
2012 Young Australian of the Year Founder and CEO of 2Mar Robotics
Marita Cheng has demonstrated vision and leadership well beyond her years
and is dedicated to encouraging young women to pursue careers in engineering. The daughter of Chinese parents, Marita was born and raised in far north Queensland and now studies at the University of Melbourne.
She founded Robogals Global in 2008 as a response to the traditionally low levels of participation by women in engineering and technology. Robogals uses fun and educational activities to teach schoolgirls about engineering and the difference that engineers make to our lives. Already Robogals has run robotics workshops for 25,000 girls across 300 schools in Australia and now has 27 chapters across Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. For her work with Robogals, in October 2012, Marita was named one of 100 Women of Influence by The Australian Financial Review and Westpac.