Mentor FAQ

No, teams are not required to have mentors. However, mentors can serve as a valuable resource of advice, information, and support, so teams with strong mentors often have an advantage, and will likely learn more along the way.

A mentor's most valuable role is in bringing the team members together. The team mentor should be a kind of coach for the team, but not the team leader.

The mentor can connect team members with people who can advise them further on the project.

Plus, mentors can be a BIG help in organizing tasks, evaluating decisions, developing a timeline, determining roles and responsibilities, and hitting deadlines.

It is not mandatory to be a teacher/school administrator to be the mentor of a team. Anyone can be a mentor: a professor, a faculty member, a business professional, or a former champion or competitor. Sorry, but current Microsoft Employees and Interns cannot be mentors.

As noted above, experience is strongly recommended. A mentor with a good business vision or with great consulting or developing skills will bring the team pragmatic advices based on his feedbacks and his experience. For fairness reasons though, magical powers are not allowed!

Team mentors must limit their support to general guidance and cannot contribute in any other form that might be considered original authorship or in way that would enable them to claim rights or ownership to the submitted entries. In no instance will work-on-behalf of teams or individuals be allowed.

The mentor is not required to be in the same geographic area as the team. However, it’s always easier to be an everyday coach when the team and mentor can meet face to face. It’s up to you.

It really depends on the availability of the mentor. For a "business" mentor, a majority of the time will often be spent defining the project. For a technical mentor, the design and development step will typically requires more time. Again, it depends on the team’s needs and the project progression.

Yes. Mentors can be mentor’s to as many teams as they like – limited by their time and availability.