[Hieb]

While our team believes that the robot should be student designed, I voted "Mentor has the final say" simply because our mentors have a final veto power--but only in cases where a proposed design has not been fully thought through and poses a safety hazard. We are willing to let a poorly thought out design procede to serve as a learning tool, but when a small structural change (say from the impact of another 'bot) may result in parts getting caught on a sprocket and becoming a projectile, then we step in. We also try to play the role of devil's advocate in most cases, so usually the students discover the weakness before we have to actually excercise that power.