Team 624 CRyptonite recently attended the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition, or SPACECOM for short, along with 3 other Houston-area FRC teams and the FTC teams at the George R. Brown Convention Center to promote the FIRST World Championships that will be held here for the first time in 2017. This was a wonderful opportunity for the Cinco students to meet some of the corporations currently leading in technological innovations relating to space exploration and witness how industries here are integrated into aerospace fields.

 Eleven students went to Lone Star College on November 12, 2016 for a demonstration planned by the Harris County library and the college to promote our STEM programs to young students and their parents. Our team brought VEX robots to play a scrimmage with 1477's VEX team and created lots of excitement among the audience. We also brought FLL robots and our Thor robot. The kids had a lot of fun chasing frisbees and Thor and were blown away by the FLL robots. Overall it was a great demo and we couldn't have done it without the parents who came, so thank you parents! Also a big thank you to Mrs. Bergbauer for inviting us to the event and CRyptonite hopes to participate in similar demos for many more years to come.

CRyptonite participated in the annual Halloween Food Drive on October 31, 2016 in a partnership with the Houston Food Bank to collect and donate canned goods from local residents. Some students went door-to-door around the neighborhood to collect extra food items while others hosted robot demos with Brimstone to entertain the young children dressed for the occasion, ready to collect candy. The food drive was very successful, surpassing the goal to collect 624 canned goods. CRyptonite hopes to continue this annual tradition to help give back to the community while instilling a passion and interest among young minds for science and robotics.

CRyptonite's two VEX rookie teams, 624C and 624R, had a great time at the Ball High School Rookie VEX Competition on October 29, 2016. They spent the day in qualifying rounds going against other teams from all over Texas. Team 624C placed third for autonomous points, an excellent first performance on behalf of the freshmen team. Both teams advanced to the finals to play against each other after being chosen by fantastic alliance captains. The Team 624C was in the winning alliance. Big thanks to our alliance members, 20002B, 590B, 400A, and 400Z for a great start to the VEX season.

A group of CRyptonite students showed off our 2016 robot, Armada, and one of our VEX robots at the Houston Section’s annual Marine Technology Society (MTS) barbeque and technology exhibition. MTS is a national organization dedicated to disseminating marine science and technical knowledge and promoting and supporting education for marine scientists, engineers, and technicians.