Meet Megi Mejdrechová

Megi Mejdrechova was awarded the first prize for her presentation on the Motion Imitating Robotics solution “RoboTwin”, which can be used to teach robots to mimic the movement that painters in industrial paint shops perform when painting parts. As a results, painters can spend less time doing repetitive jobs in an adverse setting.

Megi is from Prague, Czechia, where she completed her studies at the Czech Technical University in 2020. Like most young people at the beginning of creating their own future, Megi was in doubt about whether she chose the right major, she was so unsure that she applied for a Journalism degree at the same time.  She discovered that her fears were unfounded after the first term of studying both majors, and she continued the tech path up to the bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and then to the master’s degree in Mechatronics. During her studies, she travelled to Germany, Canada, and Singapore and she eventually became interested in robotics. She worked as a research assistant at the Czech Institute for Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics after graduation, developing machine-learning applications for complex robotic tasks. Later, she relocated to Munich, Germany, to work as a Software developer of functions for autonomous mobile robots at arculus. In 2021, she established her own company called RoboTwin.

Megi’s inspiration for founding RoboTwin materialised already during her time at university. While working on her thesis, she found out that most small and medium-sized paint shops still paint by hand with a spray gun, which is an extremely dirty, unhealthy, and unpleasant job. Her goal was to change this and to improve the automation process and thus reduce the number of hours people spend in the toxic environment of a manual paint shop.  She developed a concept to robotise small-scale industrial painting efficiently and easily with the help of a motion tracking and imitation approach. And that’s when Megi’s and RoboTwin’s success story began.

Already in her company’s founding year, Megi got involved in the EIT ecosystem. In 2021, she participated in the EIT Jumpstarter pre-accelerator programme, and got awarded the first prize in the EIT Manufacturing category. In 2022, she joined the EIT Manufacturing BoostUp! East startup competition and won the first place in the category SwitchOn, receiving not only a cash prize but also mentoring and business support from the EIT Manufacturing experts. While working with EIT Manufacturing, Megi and RoboTwin experienced an intense phase of product and business development which was supported by EIT Manufacturing and the accelerator programme Start It by . To complete the first generation of their product, the company currently collaborates with three partners and two industrial end users. Megi plays two roles: she coordinates the joint forces, and she is at the forefront of technical development. Her journey with EIT Manufacturing culminated when, in 2022, she applied for the EIT Manufacturing RIS LEADERS competition and got awarded the first prize during the EIT Manufacturing Summit 2022 in November in Brussels.

Winning the 2022 edition of the EIT Manufacturing RIS LEADERS competition confirmed Megi that she was on the right path. Upon receiving her award, Megi added that she is happy she could present her work to the international audience, she is honoured by the award, and it motivates her to keep working besides believing this achievement could potentially motivate other girls and women to try out the world of tech.

One objective of the RIS activity LEADERS – Women Innovators in Manufacturing at EIT RIS was to draw attention to women leaders in the field of manufacturing, as women have been traditionally underrepresented in this field but are at the same time playing an increasingly important role for the further development of the so-called industry 4.0.  Megi is one of those outstanding women who could be the needed motivation for so many women and girls to get more involved within fields they may think are far-fetched.

About the LEADERS competition

In November 2022 the “LEADERS – Women Innovators in Manufacturing” prize was awarded by EIT Manufacturing as part of the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) for the second time. Thereby, EIT Manufacturing wants to draw attention to women innovators and women in the manufacturing industry, as women are still underrepresented in this sector.

For the final pitch a jury selected six candidates, whose projects play a leading role in developing solutions addressing manufacturing-related challenges with strong financial, environmental, or societal impact.