Meet Dr. Malika Meghjani, the assistant professor using robots to make the world a better place

As part of Her World’s Women Of The Year celebration, the Her World Hello Possibilities award is presented in collaboration with Singtel and recognises inspirational female game changers who have made it their business to improve the lives of women and society at large through their company’s impact, creativity and clever use of technology.

As a young student in India, Dr. Malika Meghjani was fascinated by how electricity could be transformed into beautiful images on a screen. This led her to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering, followed by a Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a specialization in Image Processing and Pattern Recognition. When she realised she wanted her work to interact with the physical world, she found her way to the field of robotics — eventually earning a PhD in Computer Science.

With a scholarship to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Dr. Meghjani moved across the world, but initially found it lonely, being one of the few women in her field of study. “I went from studying in an all-girls’ school to being in a class of 60 with just six girls,” she recalls. In order to overcome that loneliness, she focused her efforts on building a community of women engineers and computer scientists, a community that she credits as giving her lifelong friends and advisors. Part of that work included reviving the student branch of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at McGill Universty in Montreal, Canada. Canada. 

Changing the world, one robot at a time

After graduating and moving to Singapore, Dr. Meghjani continued to focus on field robotics, something not very common in the local industry. “[These robots] go out and do things in the wild,” she explains. “So our mission for the Multi-Agent Robot Vision and Learning Lab (MARVL Lab for short) is to develop human-centric autonomy for multi-robot and human robot teaming.” For the past five years, MARVL has been focused on creating technologies that work with humans on land, in air and at sea (both above and below). She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Information Systems Technology and Design pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Dr. Meghjani lists the “three Ds” which are the guiding principles of most of the work in robotics: “If a job is dangerous, dull, or dirty, we ask if it’s something robots can help with.” This reflects her steadfast belief that robotics should be used to improve human lives and communities.

From screens to the seas

Take, for example, one project focused on the inspection of ship hulls. “The whole process is very tedious and not very safe,” she explains. “Usually, a diver has to go down and make a manual assessment, after which various stakeholders have to strategise the cleaning process.” The MARVL Lab’s solution, developed in collaboration with A*STAR, is to develop a robotic system that maps the ship’s hull and conducts a full assessment of biofouling and defects. “So in one shot, all parties receive a standardised report,” she adds.

Another project she highlights is a recent biodiversity assessment and coral mapping initiative. The process can be challenging if done manually, especially in the presence of oil spills or strong tides. Even after data collection, marine biologists still need to analyse the information manually. To address this, her team has developed two frameworks MERLION and MAPLION which allow marine biologists to map corals and get an assessment of the marine biodiversity, respectively, for near real-time and in-situ decision making. Even better, the user can interact with the MERLION framework for using prompts to obtain specific insights they need.

Augmenting, not replacing, human jobs

Dr. Meghjani doesn’t see robots as replacing human jobs. “I’ve thought a lot about this,” she says. “These concerns have existed throughout human innovation. When computers or cars were invented, people were worried that typists or coachmen would lose their jobs. But those roles transformed: coachmen became drivers, typists became data analysts. The same will happen when robots become more integrated into our world. Where new jobs aren’t created, robots will augment existing ones.”

She holds a similar view on trustworthy AI. “Remember when GPS was new? People closely followed its instructions for the shortest path which would sometimes lead them into valleys. However, over the years these instructions have been crowdsourced and better refined. With advent of AI too, it is inevitable that it will sometimes mislead us but it is our social responsibility to collectively finetune these systems so that we can use them to our advantage. The only way to do this effectively and efficiently is by joining forces and working together to crowdsource solutions.”

Working in a relatively new field in Singapore brings both opportunities and challenges. “Facing fears is hard,” she admits. “But only two things can happen — I fail or I succeed. If I fail, I at least know what to do next.” She’s become a fan of ‘failing fast,’ using setbacks to quickly pivot to better solutions. “I do freeze sometimes, and that’s cost me,” she says. “But when I face my fears, the outcomes are still meaningful.”

The women who inspire her

Family is her foundation. The youngest of three sisters, she credits them for paving her academic path. Now scattered across the globe, she keeps close contact: “I speak to one sister in the morning, one in the evening, and in between, I talk to my parents and my husband,” she laughs.

Her professional support comes from mentors, students and staff — and women she admires in the field. “Marine scientist and Our Blue Spaces co-founder Sam Shu Qin, Dr. Jani Tanzil, facility director at St. John’s Island National Marine Laboratory, and Biogirl MJ, a former teacher turned content creator who now runs marine intertidal tours. Their work inspires me, and when I need it, I turn to them to recharge my energy.”

PHOTOGRAPHY & ART DIRECTION Shawn Paul Tan
STYLING Cheryl Chan
HAIR & MAKEUP Sveta/Subarbs Studio
OUTFIT In Good Company