[tcjinaz]

Yes, FLL has come up with some socially interesting challenges that are effective in gender-neutral recruiting. They seem to have boiled down to a robot running around doing something that fit into an appealing story about doing good.

So, now, many high-end (and the capability is quickly moving down market) automobiles can detect, warn and even effectively react to and avoid collision hazards. What is more socially responsible than preventing accidents? That technology has been lying around FRC for years. Such things should be part of the appeal of FRC to the students, independent of gender

Perhaps FRC should not be a contact sport, but an avoid contact sport? Rig the bumpers, or no bumpers at all, with sensors that detect and report contact, and a scoring system that penalizes it? This end the inane arguments about the necessity of physical defense in the game (and the libelous assertions that any active (monetary) support of a pure offensive approach is heresy, and must be shouted down); true defense, as in the real business world, will be technology, finesse, influence and adaptability, not "my 6 CIM and n-speed gearbox will kick you your 4-CIM and n+1 speed gearbox around the field all day and into next week." The skills female humans exceed males at are "finesse, influence and adaptability." Let's reinforce the skills that are truly useful in life; muscular physical prowess is not something that counts in most commercial free markets or a corporate boardrooms. A lot of the aggression is necessary, some is required. Eviserating you opponent is not. Careful assessment of the player's motivations, and the ability to craft solutions where most of the parties involved win something near what they want, is what makes society better.