*The contents of this article are based on an interview conducted in March of 2016.
I run two companies, 2Mar Robotics and Aipoly.
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2Mar Robotics was founded in 2013. We are making a telepresence robot that enables you to be in two places at the same time by sending a robot to another place instead of going there yourself. With this, many business people would not have to travel for meetings. We have been developing these robots for a year and a half and the first 100 robots will be ready in two months. I’m quite busy trying to make sure that production runs to plan.
I also co-founded Aipoly in 2015. At this company, we produce an iPhone application that generates a voice-description of whatever object the user holds their iPhone over. I came up with this idea when I was studying at Singularity University in the USA and I’m glad to hear from users that the application helps them a lot. One example is when a person with impaired vision goes to a public restroom where normally they have to touch everywhere to know what is where. Now, they can use Aipoly. There are about 285 million visually impaired people in the world, so we have also created the application in Japanese, Italian, Spanish, German, French and Arabic.
How was Marita’s childhood life?
It is important to have priorities.
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I was born in Cairns, Australia where it is always sunny and relaxing. My parents got divorced when I was very young and my elder brother and I were raised by my mother.
Although my family was very poor, my mother thought that education was the most important thing she could provide for her children and she let us have opportunities to learn many things. She worked very hard on house-cleaning at the Hilton Hotel. I went to Kumon on Mondays, piano on Wednesdays, and Chinese dancing on Sundays. My mother even let me take Japanese lessons on Fridays since there were many Japanese tourists in Cairns.
I first encountered Kumon in seventh grade, at the age of eleven. At my primary school there were two Japanese sisters in years six and seven whom I saw doing Kumon during their lunch break. Since I liked math I said to my mother, “There’s a math program called Kumon. It looks fun.” I was already good at math– I was by this time at the top of my class but, by doing Kumon, I came to have greater confidence in myself. Also, by doing Kumon I developed perseverance.
I did volunteer work. I was a member of the environment committee, debating committee, math club and other clubs at school. I was quite busy every day but I was able to balance the busy schedule by having priorities. It was clear in my mind that “School (study) is the most important and other things come next”, so I was able to balance my time without difficulty. I still use this ‘priority method’ in my schedule and to me the projects at my two companies always come first and other things come next.
How did Marita get interested in robots?
When I was a child, I loved books.
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When I was a child, I loved reading books. My mother used to read picture books to me. Gradually, I came to read books by myself. I went to the library every week and read all the books that looked interesting. My favorites were adventure books and mysteries. I loved stories of young, strong and powerful heroines.
At the age of twelve, I was thinking about what I could do in the future. I thought that robots were cool and it would be helpful if they were all around the world. I started thinking of technology, and making robots became my dream. My brother liked architecture and science and he taught me a lot and gave me inspiration. I came to believe that I could do it if he could.
I entered the University of Melbourne at the age of 17 and left home. Although we have lived apart since then, my mother is always supportive. She tells me to keep trying and keep working hard.
Related Links
2Mar Robotics
Aipoly
 | Part 2 －What is Robogals? |