You are very fortunate to have a mentor willing not only to spend his time, but his company's resources to help your team out. It seems to be an unfair advantage (seeing as all our team had left were hacksaws, a drill, a dremel, and assorted socket wrenches) but that's life! Some people get luckier than others. I would strongly advise that your team would try and follow the rules if at all possible
but as long as you didnt strip someone from their righteous title, the functionality of your bot is most important in my book!