[EricH]

Engineering is, at least partially, about producing an optimum product, based on resources available.

This leads to a number of design choices and tradeoffs. Maybe an "inferior" material is used because it's cheaper/more readily available than the preferred material. Maybe time is extended to reduce cost slightly. Maybe you can produce a part at 0.0001" every time... but you produce it at 0.001" every time because that's "good enough" and besides the machine that normally does the 0.0001" is busy on some other project. Maybe you throw 5 engineers at a problem, or maybe you throw 2 interns at the same problem. Maybe you use a thickness that isn't going to work because that's available--but you can design another part to take up the extra stress.

I don't really care whether you've got 60+ students, 30+ engineering mentors, 30+ NEMs, a full CNC shop, and a $300,000 budget, or you have 5 students, one teacher who keeps the shop open, hand tools, and a shoestring budget. It's all about how you use those resources to produce the best design you can. If you want to use those engineering mentors to produce your entire robot, that's your choice. If you want to have those engineering mentors sit around drinking coffee, that's your choice, but they may have some good input anyway. If those 5 students with minimal mentor support beat you, it ain't luck. It's them using their limited resources to the optimal level.