Meet four female leaders who are not only at the forefront of technology today, but who are also using tech to help others. From robotics and medicine to food and undergarments, see how these four women are using technology to help make the world a better place.
It’s no secret women and men often see things differently. It turns out they do so not only in the aspects of everyday life, but also in technology, robotics and even app development. Women tech entrepreneurs often say that their innovation ideas are sparked by specific problems humans are faced with. They may decide to build a robot to help the sick, code an app to feed the hungry, or solve a specific wardrobe challenge known only to women. They are also introducing high-tech solution to the areas not traditionally thought of technology frontiers. Here five female entrepreneurs share their career paths to success and opinions on the importance of gender diversity.
For Marita Cheng, founder of Aubot, an Australian company that makes Teleport, a telepresence robot, the path to a technology career started with a desire to solve a very practical problem. When Cheng was in college she realized that many people, especially the elderly, forget to take their medications. So together with a friend, she created a reminder application, called Nudge, that reminded people to take their pills.
“We entered our business plan into a competition and we came first in the undergraduate division,” she recalled.
Cheng launched Teleport, which allows people to interact with each other via a mobile video-conference, for a similar reason — solving practical problems with robotic technology. Teleport allows critically sick children, including those who must remain in hospitals, to attend schools. It allows adults with disability, or a temporary illness, to avoid missing days in the office, dialing into the office settings from their home and having a more human-like communication experience. The patients dial from their computer or a mobile device to the Teleport robot, located in schools, hospitals or museums, which allows them to be present at different locations via teleconferencing.
“We work with a nonprofit organization in Australia, which works with sick children and uses our robots,” Cheng said.
Besides building robots, Cheng also spent a lot of time building a female roboticist community. She founded an organization, called Robogals, that works to spark young women’s interest in robotics. After starting the first Robogals chapter in Australia in 2008, she studied in England for 10 months as an exchange student, where she started another chapter.
“I thought it would be cool to have girls to do this in the U. K., so I set up a Robogals chapter there also.” That gave her the idea of expanding the Robogals presence back home. When she returned, she organized a Robogals conference, teaching about 20 young women from different parts of Australia how to start and run a chapter back home. The initiative took off, quickly gaining international presence. In 2016, over 55,000 girls have taken a Robogals workshop, and by 2020, Robogals is aiming to reach 200,000 girls worldwide.
While most would think brassiere designs to be universal, Cathy Devine, vice president of Innovation at Soma, thought the process of finding a well-fitting bra could use an upgrade. Many women spend hours at department stores trying these garments on and leave dissatisfied, she said.
