[CENTURION]

KrazyCarl asks a very good question, the nature of the decisions matters.

When it comes to robot decisions, i don't see any reason why a mentor should intervene. It's the student's robot, and frankly, you often learn more from failure than success. If a trained engineer makes all the decisions, yeah you'll have a better robot, but the kids lose out on the learning inherent in that process.

But when it comes to larger team issue, such as team organization, rules, safety, you often need somebody with knowledge and experience involved, and so you may need a mentor to take the reigns in those situations.

Now I want to be clear: this is just my opinion. Other teams have their own way of operating that works well for them.