In my experience experts with years (15+) experience in relevant industries are the driving factors in such projects.
There is a complex balance of requirements, constraints and regulations and experts have a clear overall picture of how to approach these projects.
They will be able to tell you ‘put the motor a few inches back here’ and it may tip the entire scale for the value of the entire system.
So if you include in your documentation what role you as students played, and what came from experts/professors, this is a big plus to me in presenting the design process.
Working on design competitions is also a nice way to gain skills, knowledge, experience in the field and exposure, they give you a deadline and you have to come up with something concrete and workable.