Marita Cheng

Nudge Pty Ltd.
I cofounded this company, which is a reminder service for people taking prescription medication, delivered by an automated phone call or SMS message to the patient or their carer. It is ordered and paid for at the pharmacy alongside the prescription being dispensed, and aims to solve the problem of medication non-compliance which costs the healthcare system in Australia $350 million each year. Implementation in the real world is now underway with the launch of our Stage 1 Trial in February 2009. Our Stage 3 Trial will be held at two Melbourne pharmacies who are part of one of Australia’s largest pharmacy chains. Nudge also won the Undergraduate Division of the 2008 Melbourne University Entrepreneurs Challenge (MUEC) and was the winning entry of the recent IdeaPitch ‘08 competition at the University of Melbourne.

Robogals Inc. Australia
I founded this not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to engage female school students in engineering and technology topics from a young age, with the intention of ultimately increasing female enrolment in engineering and science courses at university. The objectives are achieved by training university students in Lego robotics then sending them out to primary schools to teach girls Lego robotics. In three months, we taught over 100 girls from 7 schools, and 6 teams from 3 schools entered in the robotics competition we set up for the girls. From 2009 onwards the girls are encouraged to participate in First Lego League.

mew Australia
I founded this robot-building team made up of university students whose purpose is for the students to collaborate and learn robot-building skills together. Ten undergraduate students studying Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering and Science participated in the project.

Robogals Inc. United Kingdom
I founded this group through Women in Science Engineering and Technology at Imperial College. Our Robogoals for the spring term are:
1. Have a committed team set up to champion Robogals next academic year
2. Be registered as an English not-for-profit organisation
3. Been to 20 schools to give introductory talks
4. Have 5 robots of our own
5. Trained 20 volunteers in the lessons

mew United Kingdom
I founded this robot-building team of 35 dedicated, passionate and uber-smart computing, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and physics people working to create a robot to participate in Eurobot 2009. Our specific measurable results of this project are:
1. A robot is built and entered into the UK Eurobot Competition on 1 May 2009.
2. We receive front page coverage in Felix, the Imperial College student newspaper, which has been recognised as The Guardian’s Student Newspaper of the Year UK.
3. Ten university students participate in the project. A student is deemed to have participated if they spend more than 5 hours on the project.
4. The aims and objectives of mew are continued the following year.