Click the link to read the article on the Colorado State University website (Jennifer Dimas):
April 20, 2026
Editor’s note: The FlocBot team will display its work during CSU’s Engineering Days celebration, called E-Days. The event, held by the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, showcases undergraduate senior design projects. It will run 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in the Lory Student Center ballroom and on the Student Center Plaza at CSU. Students from the CSU team are available for interviews during the 2026 E-Days event on April 23 at the Lory Student Center on campus.
The future of safe drinking water might be found in the engineering school at Colorado State University.
Here, a student team has invented a device that automates water sampling and data analysis for the chemical treatment used to produce safe drinking water. Not only have the engineering students developed the technology, but they also have founded a startup company to perfect and commercialize it. Their target market: the utilities that treat municipal water to ensure its safety and quality for household use.
The invention is called FlocBot – named for a process called flocculation. During this process, water treatment plants add coagulants to raw water, causing particles and microorganisms, or “floc,” to clump for easier filtration.
Now, treatment plants perform flocculation and associated data collection manually. FlocBot builds upon existing technologies to automate the process, allowing operators to use their plant’s computer-based infrastructure to receive real-time data; this, in turn, allows them to determine their water’s optimal coagulant dose.
FlocBot will allow plants to more accurately dose coagulating chemicals to optimize floc clumps for filtration. Too few chemicals can allow pollutants to get through filters into drinking water. Too many can also impact drinking water quality, while wasting expensive chemicals and wearing down pipes and filters.
“Our goal is to allow water treatment plants and local governments to produce cleaner, more reliable drinking water while minimizing the environmental impact and saving taxpayer dollars,” said Josh Kates, a CSU senior studying civil engineering. He is co-leader of the 14-member FlocBot team. All are students in CSU’s Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering.The student team visited more than 20 water treatment plants in the span of six months to understand the best way to engineer FlocBot. They have tested the device at the Fort Collins water treatment plant.
FlocBot is a senior design project for the students, who have worked on the project since the start of the academic year last fall. They will present their work alongside dozens of other projects during a campus event called Engineering Days, or E-Days, on April 23.
They have already won a business pitch competition called the I4E Startup Spotlight, sponsored by CSU’s Institute for Entrepreneurship.
As the FlocBot students complete their senior year of engineering studies, they are also building their company to commercialize their technology.
“Starting a business is always risky, but we’re fully committed,” Hugh McCurren, team co-leader, said. “We want to make a positive environmental impact in this industry. Based on conversations with numerous plants and possible customers, we’re optimistic about FlocBot’s potential.”