Doug, I'm so glad to hear of your hesitation to participate this year. I'm really shocked to learn that the Franklin Institute would put on an event like this -- it seems less about the engineering and more about the thrill of combat.
I enjoyed Battlebots for a while, but I found building robots to do other, more "peaceful" things to be much more fun and interesting. It's very possible that other women would feel the same way...
So I'd recommend that Bryn Mawr go anyway, first to demonstrate that women are involved in robotics, and second to show what else can be done with robots! Not showing up might mean that people only walk away with the impression that those solitary guys work with robots.
I'm disappointed in FI
Doug, I'm so glad to hear of your hesitation to participate this year. I'm really shocked to learn that the Franklin Institute would put on an event like this -- it seems less about the engineering and more about the thrill of combat.
I enjoyed Battlebots for a while, but I found building robots to do other, more "peaceful" things to be much more fun and interesting. It's very possible that other women would feel the same way...
So I'd recommend that Bryn Mawr go anyway, first to demonstrate that women are involved in robotics, and second to show what else can be done with robots! Not showing up might mean that people only walk away with the impression that those solitary guys work with robots.