Hi Team 624 Parents and Mentors, A group of students and mentors from Cryptonite, Team 624 toured Knust-Godwin’s Katy equipment manufacturing facilities on Saturday, September 27th. The tour was hosted by Mike Corliss, VP-Technology for Knust-Godwin. CRyptonite students were astonished but entranced by the large variety of tools and machines. There were dozens of CNCs, Mills, Lathes, and even several state-of-the-art Renishaw metal 3D printers. The metal 3D printers perform “additive manufacturing” so precise that additional machining is not required and exotic shapes small and large can be made (see the picture of the metal, ultra-small, highly detailed Statue of Liberty pictured below). The metal 3D printers utilize high temperatures, exotic metal powders, inert gas atmospheres, and powerful lasers and were one of the major highlights of the tour. Many of the students had seen 3D printers that form parts with plastic, but these industry-changing machines were a completely new level of impressive. Along with the laser metal printing, the student got to see many other types of manufacturing, many of which were new to 624 students, such as Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) manufacturing. It was a great tour of a high tech manufacturing facility located right in Katy. Mr Corliss also pointed out that Knust-Godwin offers summer internships for High School and College age students and encouraged Team 624 students to apply! Thank you Mr Corliss for the great tour and great opportunities in the future!See a full set of the pictures for the tour on the team web site at: https://gallery.team624.org/Coming-Soon-1-6-18/Knust-Godwin-Facility-Tour-10-27-18/

Juan Ruiz, Team 624 alumni, with John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, visited with CRyptonite students and mentors at the RSC to talk about his mechanical engineering work on the Parker Solar Probe. He explained steps from development, then showed the students a video of the launch of the probe which was August 12 at 3:31 eastern time. On October 3rd, the probe successfully completed its first orbit around Venus.For more information, here is the mission website link: http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/

Sewa students from the Alief School District visited CRyptonite at the Robert R. Shaw Center for a fun morning of STEM activities! The students participated in bottle car racing, wind tunnel experiments, and straw rocket launching. We really enjoyed being able to meet and work with students of all different backgrounds, and hope to see them again soon! 

At the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI), students from Team 624 had a blast, competing passionately over 2 days. Though the bus rides were long (18 hours!) we had a ton of fun, and can’t wait to attend again next year. We also got an amazing photo with other teams that are also sponsored by Schneider Electric.

On June 29th and 30th, team 624 had a ton of fun competing at TRI. We had a blast participating in the all girl drive team event, black out matches, and the actual competition itself. We ended the main event in second place after tough competition. We loved the fun, casual atmosphere of the competition,  and can't wait to attend again next year!