About Me

My name is Debs and I'm a roboteer, who just happens to be female, I'm on Team Chompalot, formerly Team Cookie Monsters, along with my hubby Simon and we're the co-owners of the smokin', firey dragon robot Chompalot that's taken part in Robot Wars Series 6 and Extreme II, and now the new series of Robot Wars.

I'm the proud holder of the Robot Wars "Iron Maiden" title which I won driving Chompalot during the Iron Maiden's tournament for Extreme II. I decided to set up this blog to document some of the things that we do with Chompalot, but also as a means of showing what I do as a roboteer after comments were made about female roboteers doing nothing but make tea and sausage rolls.

I've been a part of the "a womans place is in the home" and "girls simply can't do the same things as boys" prejudice since I was young and have fought against it all my life, I happen to think that women and girls bring a lot to a robot team, different skills, different perspectives and different approaches. We need to shine a light into the places they fit and show them the way.

This blog is the way I see the world of a roboteer, its my perspective, Simon may not always agree which is his prerogative, but on most points we do agree, but nevertheless you have to take this blog as an "all views are my own" kind of thing.

I'll be adding things to the blog like events we attend with Chompie, developments made and stuff that is pertinent to the team. But I also want to add things useful to the - what turns out to be many - women out there, who are interested in taking part in Robot Wars or have an interest in robots in general, but don't know where to start.

There will be advise, ideas and I'll be flagging issues that prevent women from taking part, I have to stress that I'm not asking for a sudden influx of all girl teams, nor would I exclude them, my role as I see it, is to get more women on teams, more females in the robotic profession and encourage more girls to study computing and engineering. So that more teams and robots benefit from having the best of both worlds, I believe that integration is better than segregation and I truly believe that women and girls can robot, we have to make every female that doubts believe it, and we have to help them in their voyage of discovery.

Myself I have basic skills when it comes to robot building, I can do some basic electronics, I help with the design and ideas, I do a little coding and an awful lot of PR, social media, website maintenance and so much more besides. I'm learning about robot building and I'm beginning to startle myself when I can answer a question about motors or batteries without having to ask Simon first, the more you're exposed to the life of a roboteer, the more of a roboteer you become. So if I can help I will, if I can't I'll help find someone that can. #womenbringittothearena #girlscanrobot

We got this!