I understand the importance of the position, but I see the limits in the spot. I'm here to teach students about engineering and smart decision making, not win them a competition. If that were my job, you'd be seeing a lot more designs up here that I "planned" on making, and justification on why they're the best.

Instead, I spend my time designing and planning parts and mechanisms with the intent of showing students that there are more possibilities than the most complex (high school students seem to be good at finding the most difficult solution first...) and expensive option.

A mentor should teach the team, not BE the team in my opinion.