Da Kine Lab @ UNLV

March 25, 2026 Our paper from Isaac Berk and Emilie Luong on a new technique to obtain the full 3D geometry of droplets from a single image has been published in Droplet. This method is more accurate and provides much more information than classical goniometry. This is a fully deterministic approach based on ray tracing and the Young-Laplace equation (no AI). This “reverse catch light” method, inspired by “catch lights” in photography, utilizes the specular reflections of known lighting positions to calculate the curved droplet surface.

October 22, 2024 Our paper on a new, ultra-fast, solid-liquid hybrid atmospheric water harvesting technique that is bioinspired from tree-frog skins and airplant cuticles has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The highly positive results have led to UNLV IP being secured and exclusively licensed to WAVR Technologies, a startup company co-founded by Dr. Cho and former DKL members Yiwei Gao and Ryan Phung.

September 3, 2024 Mario's paper on how boiling performance is dictated by the molar concentration of surfactant additives is published in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.

April 18, 2024 Da Kine Lab awarded $2.1 million by the Department of Energy ARPA-E ROSIE program to lead the development of a green ironmaking technique utilizing electrochemistry to decarbonize the steel industry. This project is in collaboration of University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Houston.

December 1, 2023 Amir's paper on transient wetting behavior on hydrogels is published in Soft Matter.

May 12, 2023 Congratulations to Yiwei Gao (PhD) and Amir Kashani (MS) for graduating in the Spring of 2023!

December 14, 2022 Jeremy Cho is awarded the NSF CAREER award for work on atmospheric water harvesting through hydrogels. We thank the NSF and look forward to continuing our fundamental work in this area for the next five years.

October 28, 2022 DKL was awarded the ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grant. We thank the ACS for supporting our research on surfactant transport principles.

October 28, 2022 Our paper describing how dynamic adsorption controls surfactant-enhanced boiling heat transfer was published in Scientific Reports.

September 27, 2022 Our paper describing how hydrogel permeability is related to stiffness was published in Soft Matter. This work is part of the Soft Matter Emerging Investigator Series.

September 27, 2021 Our hydrogel work investigating stiffness, swelling, and humidity was published in Soft Matter and our work was featured as an inside cover photo.