Students Team up with Raypak to Engineer Prototype of Smart Pool Sweeper

Raypak was proud to sponsor a team at this year’s CSU Chico College of Engineering Capstone Design Program project. We partnered with senior-level engineering students to design, build, and test solutions to real-world problems. In our case, our goal was to expand our market base into the pool cleaning industry by developing a product that reduces energy consumption and saves client time. We looked to the engineering team to create a pool sweeper that has the capability to enter and exit an in-ground pool. The group spent close to 2,000 hours on the project over nine months.

Ryan Valencia, a CSU, Chico alum and current Raypak Mechanical Design Engineer oversaw this project on behalf of the organization. When asked about the project, he said, “Much appreciation to the Chico State Raypak team for completing a successful design capstone project. They took an open ended idea and created a working prototype of a smart pool sweeper in less than a year. This is Raypak's third capstone design project with CSU Chico and it's exciting to see the innovation developed by the student teams. Thank you to Hiram Osuna and Juan Montanez for their support with this year’s project”.

In the past Raypak has worked with other universities to obtain co-op's or interns for a semester or summer. The CSU Chico Capstone Project differs in that instead of having a student work at Raypak in the office for a short period of time, a team of four work on a project for Raypak remotely over the course of a year. Acting as a customer but also an integral mentor to these students Raypak helped by donating time and labor to the project from design & documentation, controls, lab, and operations.

The relationship with Raypak and Chico State University has grown over the past three years. The Dean for the College of Engineering visited Raypak in early 2022 and new ideas have been discussed for future capstone projects. As a graduate of the Capstone Project himself, Valencia noted that he sees the tremendous benefit of the project to the students and company sponsors. “Cultivating the relationship between Raypak and CSU Chico is an honor and one we hope will continue to grow.”

When asked what the Capstone Project meant to one of the team members Max Famini, he said, “There’s been so much time dedicated to this. We, as a team, are very proud of what we have to show for it. We’re all glad we have something working and effective that we can show off—this is our baby.”?

Another team member, Oscar Rodriguez described his experience saying,”There were a few challenges, being the only project dealing with a water environment. The pool sweeper was designed to withstand various depths and waterproofing but also needed to include? features such as autonomously entering and exiting the pool. From my experience this was a huge leap in my engineering career. Learning about the design process in a real world setting with customer requirements, research, & drawing concepts to develop a final product was invaluable. I cannot thank Raypak and especially our amazing alumni/sponsor for presenting this project idea to California State University Chico for us students to solve. Thank you!’.

At Raypak, we pride ourselves on innovation and collaboration, and it is an honor to sponsor and mentor young professionals who are interested in mechanical engineering. We hope to continue to foster a passion for design and development by continuing to educate and guide future generations.