[EricH]

Originally Posted by bduddy

That should be on you and them. What if they're not very good at driving the robot, does that mean you should do it? And if you have to do welding or other similar work during elimination matches, then you probably have bigger problems... Not saying I'm in favor of the suggestion, but I don't think these are particularly compelling counterpoints.

This might not be one either, as it depends on the student/mentors in question, but a mentor not being allowed to work on the robot could be the difference between an orderly but hurried major repair (of quality better than "It should work for this match") and a panicky, chaotic major repair of poor quality. Just that calming presence and experience troubleshooting that a good mentor can bring (or fake, if need be) could be the difference.


I agree, it depends on the team. For me personally, if a student is politely asking a mentor to let them do the job, and the mentor is entirely refusing for no reason, that is right about the unacceptable point (mentors refusing because the student doesn't know how to do the job yet and failing to teach is also unacceptable to me--I don't call that mentoring). To any student I happen to work with, that happens to read this, if I'm doing a job you can do, feel free to push me out of the way (though asking first is encouraged in case I'm doing something that needs a safe shutdown).