[Billfred]

If I have to pick one, I'll go with mentor-designed, student-built.

Why, you may ask? Well, it goes back to the days I was in AFJROTC at Irmo High School. (Yes, there was a time I had no hair.)

For those who've never done it, drill is a rather involved process. It involves listening skills, remembering a series of precise movements (especially when you get into fancier things like column movements). It takes most of the first year of the course to learn most of the drill movements. Once you master the elements of actually performing the drill movements, you're able to transition to commanding cadets and the bucket-o-fun that is.

In FIRST, the engineering mentors have had the education and time to master the skills involved in building these robots, something that most high school students have not had time to do. Just as I wouldn't expect most second-year cadets to be able to run an entire flight, I wouldn't expect most high school students to be able to design the entire robot.

Now, should this be some secretive process where the mentors walk in one day with a design that has magically appeared? Of course not. Students should definitely have input into the design. And the mentors should definitely explain why certain aspects of the robot are the way they are. (To use the example of 1293, I wouldn't have connected the dots about grippy wheels and four CIM motors having the potential to trip the main breaker.) By having the mentors (and remember, veteran students can be mentors in their own way) do the majority of the designing, you both demonstrate the process and have the ability to avert mild disasters, which tend to hit everyone at some point or another.

That's my two cents. Apologies if they don't make sense (as the past two days have proven that sleep deprivation isn't just for FIRST).