I'm glad you guys are doing this! As said practice is a must. Going on to programs, Inventor and SolidWorks in my opinion are the better programs, but SolidWorks is used in industry much more. Since you are starting from scratch I would advise to use SolidWorks. Once you have that, I would also recommend sectioning off members. One good idea is to have people to design and other people for doing prints for manufacturing to split up the work load. Only have two or three people max actually DESIGNING the robot though. Mentors will always be with them discussing design solutions, which can make working with more than 3 students very hectic
