The Chinese History Museum invited me to be part of their exhibition on notable Chinese Australians. In February, over Chinese New Year, my mum came to visit me in Melbourne and we went to see the exhibition together after a delicious yum cha brunch.
Located at the Chinese Museum, the One Million Stories Exhibition and the Chinese Australian Achievers exhibit will take you on a 200-year journey from when the first Chinese Australians migrated to our shores in 1818 to those who have arrived recently. The exhibition endeavours to enable all Chinese Australians to find a place in Australian society and to contribute to building a progressive and multicultural nation.
This event celebrates the contribution of outstanding Australians for their ingenuity, talent, skill, creativity, hard work, conviction, and efforts to make our society a better place.
We bring you 28 Achievers and their ‘formula for success.’ The Achievers also share their insights and understanding as to how important their identity, as Chinese Australians, was to their journey.
The Chinese Australians documented at the exhibition are:
Vernon Ah Kee | Tony Ayres | Marita Cheng AM | Frank Chew OAM | Elizabeth Chong AM | Pr. Darryl Low Choy | Paul Coghlan AO | Jenny Margaret Kee AO | King Fong OAM | Russell Jack AM | Lee Lin Chin | Li Cun-Xin AO | Hong Lim | Lin Jong | Pr. Kwong Chiu Lee Dow AO | Maurice Leong Kwok Cheong | Gilbert Lau AM | Benjamin Law | Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello | Irene Kwong Moss AO | Alice Pung | Vivian Wang | Dr Eric Tan | William Wang | Eddie Kent Woo | Right Rev. George Tung Yep | Zhou Xiaoping
Elizabeth Chong AM is my buddy - we sat next to each other at the Order of Australia ceremony and she invited me to her family celebrations that night afterwards. Here we are together with our awards at the Order of Australia ceremony. We were the only two Chinese Asians receiving honours that day in Government House and we were placed together because our last names are so similar alphabetically. She is the best looking 88 year old I know!
I’m super happy to see some of my friends included in the exhibition, including writer Alice Pung, ballet dancer Li Cun-Xin AO, maths teacher Eddie Woo, and writer Benjamin Law. Go check out the exhibition at the Chinese History Museum to find out more!
BigSpeak named me one of top 10 female keynote speakers and one of their top 10 technology keynote speakers! I am utterly delighted! I only received my O1 to speak in the USA a year ago, so to have such recognition in the USA is a real feather in my cap! I love traveling the world, meeting people and sharing my stories. I look forward to traveling to more places around the USA and sharing my stories!
I was invited to speak at the Pebble Beach Authors & Ideas Festival (PBAIF) in Pebble Beach. What a stunning part of the world! Most other speakers there are published authors - which I am not. I spoke about my robots and how books influenced me to get into robotics. I then ran a breakout session abut the future of robotics and the components required for a successful robotics company. It was delightful to spend a few days in such a beautiful part of the world, sharing ideas!
We filmed some more videos of our Jevaroo robot arm in action! Here it is demonstrating its load and lift capabilities. It can lift 2.32kg at the closest angle, and 1.32kg at full reach.
Lifting 1.32kg at full extension.
Lifting 2.32kg at the closest angle.
After a long pandemic hiatus from giving speeches in person, I was invited to be the in-person keynote speaker at The Right Place’s Manufacturing Leadership Summit, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I spoke about why it’s so difficult to start a robotics company and what’s needed to start a successful robotics company.
I spoke about the great work being done by companies including:
Starting a successful robotics company is hard! You need to find a problem robots are capable of solving, make the right technical choices in order to scale, and get the business model right. It was so fantastic to share my knowledge about robotics and to travel and attend an actual conference with other people, after not traveling at all for work during the pandemic.
I was fortunate ArtPrize was happening while I was in Grand Rapids. ArtPrize is this annual huge art competition in Grand Rapids where participants compete to win over $450,000 in prize money. I got to see some of the 1700+ art pieces that were competing. It was also really cool that not all the artwork was in one place, but was scattered all over the city, for everyone to enjoy in a distributed, parallel way. Also, it rained while I was there, and the artwork outdoors had to withstand that as well! The art pieces were so big and creative! Grand Rapids was a fun city! Here are some of the pieces of artwork I saw being proudly displayed.
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.
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