[Jeff Rodriguez]

I chose option number 1.

How many high school students have the training and knowledge to be able to design frames, manipulators, transmissions, etc? Students are just that, students.

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

mostly because in the engineering world, engineers usually dont build anything. We do the design work, and hand the CAD drawings or netlist or wiring diagram off to a layout person, machinist, technician... and they do the hands on building

when they get done they walk into our office and say "here's your unit" - then we test and debug to see if the design meets the requirements specification (engineer-speak for "what its suppose to do")

How many of those technicians and machinists know exactly what the unit is going to be used for, and know all the guidelines that the engineers had to follow to design the unit?
The biggest difference here is that the students already know what the robot will do, way before you give them blueprints.
It is my experience that every (and I mean every) student who knows about the game, at some point has their own idea of what the robot should look like. They come up with their own rough mental blueprint.

If you were to hand a set of blueprints to a group of students, what you hand them will be different from what they were thinking. They will see how a professional engineer solved the problem. A professional design will, most likely, be much more, well, professional than what they had in mind.
Even if the blueprint you hand them is the same idea that they had come up with, they will see how it is actually implemented, and maybe even improved over their idea.
I see this all leading to the I (FIRST) - Inspiration.
A student sees what a professional has done and is inspired to try and do it themselves.

Now, compare that situation to a robot that is designed by students and built by mentors. As I said before, most students don’t have the knowledge to be able to design a robot. The reality is that a large number of teams do not have students reading these message boards and learning everything their brains can handle about design.
So, the robot is designed by the students to the best of their abilities. Yes, the robot would work, but would it be as consistent or efficient as a professionally designed robot? The students would end up spending more time at competitions trying to fix things and make last minute upgrades that they overlooked while designing the robot.
There is no doubt that the students will learn a great deal from this experience. There is also no doubt that they will inspired.

The two options are simply different ways of achieving Inspiration.
When asked the question, I choose engineer/mentor designed and student built.