Daniel J Preston
@danpreston.bsky.social
Assistant professor, director of the PI Lab (https://pi.rice.edu) at Rice University; previously postdoc in Whitesides group at HarvardCCB, PhD at MIT MechE.
Check out our paper published in @aaas.org Science Advances! This work reveals the impact of curing on the strength of silicone elastomer devices, yielding soft robotic actuators with 50% higher curvature and 3D-printed parts with 200% better interlayer adhesion.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
July 21, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Check out our paper published in @aaas.org Science Advances! This work reveals the impact of curing on the strength of silicone elastomer devices, yielding soft robotic actuators with 50% higher curvature and 3D-printed parts with 200% better interlayer adhesion.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Congratulations Dr. Marquise Bell on defending your PhD thesis in @ricegradschool.bsky.social Mechanical Engineering today! Dr. Bell is the fourth PhD graduate from the PI Lab. He will move to the @upenn.edu this fall as a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow working with Prof. Kevin Turner. Great job!
July 18, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Congratulations Dr. Marquise Bell on defending your PhD thesis in @ricegradschool.bsky.social Mechanical Engineering today! Dr. Bell is the fourth PhD graduate from the PI Lab. He will move to the @upenn.edu this fall as a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow working with Prof. Kevin Turner. Great job!
Check out our article on multi-sensory haptic wearables in Nature Reviews Bioengineering! Led by @marcieomalley.bsky.social with @dlipomi.bsky.social and other collaborators. @riceneuro.bsky.social @ricegradschool.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
March 6, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Check out our article on multi-sensory haptic wearables in Nature Reviews Bioengineering! Led by @marcieomalley.bsky.social with @dlipomi.bsky.social and other collaborators. @riceneuro.bsky.social @ricegradschool.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Excited to share our paper in @cp-cellrepphyssci.bsky.social! Building on a fundamental study of bond strength and bursting in textile-based devices, we programmed local failure in a fuse that enables selection and sequencing of tasks with one pressure input. news.rice.edu/news/2025/ha...
February 18, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Excited to share our paper in @cp-cellrepphyssci.bsky.social! Building on a fundamental study of bond strength and bursting in textile-based devices, we programmed local failure in a fuse that enables selection and sequencing of tasks with one pressure input. news.rice.edu/news/2025/ha...
New work from @ricePILab in collaboration with researchers at @EdinburghUni and the Wehmeyer lab here at @RiceEngineering shows mask-enabled topography contrast patterning with implications for phase change heat transfer and thermal rectification: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c03891
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
New work from @ricePILab in collaboration with researchers at @EdinburghUni and the Wehmeyer lab here at @RiceEngineering shows mask-enabled topography contrast patterning with implications for phase change heat transfer and thermal rectification: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c03891
In new work from @ricePILab in @ACS_Langmuir, we go beyond the Washburn relationship: inverse design & additive manufacturing produce wicking materials with atypical fluid propagation for low-cost diagnostics, thermal management, and more. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c...
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
In new work from @ricePILab in @ACS_Langmuir, we go beyond the Washburn relationship: inverse design & additive manufacturing produce wicking materials with atypical fluid propagation for low-cost diagnostics, thermal management, and more. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c...
Two covers from @RiceMECH in the same issue of @Advintellsyst! Our work from @ricePILab on sheet-based fluidic diodes and collaborative work on multiscale haptics led by @MarcieOMalley's MAHI lab were both selected for covers in the July issue.
https://engineering.rice.edu/news/rice-labs-introd...
https://engineering.rice.edu/news/rice-labs-introd...
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Two covers from @RiceMECH in the same issue of @Advintellsyst! Our work from @ricePILab on sheet-based fluidic diodes and collaborative work on multiscale haptics led by @MarcieOMalley's MAHI lab were both selected for covers in the July issue.
https://engineering.rice.edu/news/rice-labs-introd...
https://engineering.rice.edu/news/rice-labs-introd...
Great job by @Fayeyap25 defending her PhD thesis in @RiceMECH! Her work applied reaction kinetics to understand virus inactivation, elastomer curing, and manufacturing of soft robots, and she will start her own lab as a faculty member at @uhmanoa in January.
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Great job by @Fayeyap25 defending her PhD thesis in @RiceMECH! Her work applied reaction kinetics to understand virus inactivation, elastomer curing, and manufacturing of soft robots, and she will start her own lab as a faculty member at @uhmanoa in January.
Congrats to our @ricePILab members starting tenure-track faculty positions this year! @ranoop93 at @Tulane, @Zhen_Skyii at @UT_Dallas, and @Fayeyap25 at @uhmanoa - we took a photo in our uni t-shirts before our summer lab social. Looking forward to following their careers!
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Congrats to our @ricePILab members starting tenure-track faculty positions this year! @ranoop93 at @Tulane, @Zhen_Skyii at @UT_Dallas, and @Fayeyap25 at @uhmanoa - we took a photo in our uni t-shirts before our summer lab social. Looking forward to following their careers!
Congratulations @Zhen_Skyii on successfully defending your PhD thesis in @RiceMECH today! One of the first three members of @ricePILab, Zhen's work has given us a new understanding of the impact of surface contamination, and also how to avoid it.
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Congratulations @Zhen_Skyii on successfully defending your PhD thesis in @RiceMECH today! One of the first three members of @ricePILab, Zhen's work has given us a new understanding of the impact of surface contamination, and also how to avoid it.
Happy to share our work led by @ranoop93 on fluidic resistors made from soft porous foams for embedded sensing and control in #softrobots and #wearables, out today in @WileyVCH Advanced Functional Materials: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202403379
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Happy to share our work led by @ranoop93 on fluidic resistors made from soft porous foams for embedded sensing and control in #softrobots and #wearables, out today in @WileyVCH Advanced Functional Materials: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202403379
Is it time to take another look at the osmotic heat pipe? Rick @thefontknows thinks so. Check out his review paper co-authored with our @AFResearchLab collaborators: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.123097
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Is it time to take another look at the osmotic heat pipe? Rick @thefontknows thinks so. Check out his review paper co-authored with our @AFResearchLab collaborators: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.123097
We show fluidic diodes made from lightweight flexible sheets, including #textiles, in a paper in @Advintellsyst published last week. Beyond simply enforcing one-way flow, they enable #logic, encoding, and rectification. https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300785
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
We show fluidic diodes made from lightweight flexible sheets, including #textiles, in a paper in @Advintellsyst published last week. Beyond simply enforcing one-way flow, they enable #logic, encoding, and rectification. https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300785
Nice job by @Fayeyap25 winning Best Poster at the MRS Spring Meeting #S24MRS in the Advances in Polymer-based Soft Matter for Additive Manufacturing symposium! She covered new unpublished work as well as our recent @CellRepPhysSci paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.101849
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Nice job by @Fayeyap25 winning Best Poster at the MRS Spring Meeting #S24MRS in the Advances in Polymer-based Soft Matter for Additive Manufacturing symposium! She covered new unpublished work as well as our recent @CellRepPhysSci paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.101849
Congrats @Zhen_Skyii on winning the @RiceMECH Research Excellence Award! Pictured here giving a special seminar to the department in recognition of the award.
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Congrats @Zhen_Skyii on winning the @RiceMECH Research Excellence Award! Pictured here giving a special seminar to the department in recognition of the award.
Congrats @irf_zob on your successful MS defense in @RiceMECH - the third from @ricePILab this spring!
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Congrats @irf_zob on your successful MS defense in @RiceMECH - the third from @ricePILab this spring!
Another successful MS defense in @RiceMECH from a @ricePILab member this spring - congratulations, Evan!
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Another successful MS defense in @RiceMECH from a @ricePILab member this spring - congratulations, Evan!
Nice job today by @ricePILab's Adam Broshkevitch defending his MS thesis in @RiceMECH today!
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Nice job today by @ricePILab's Adam Broshkevitch defending his MS thesis in @RiceMECH today!
Our work in @CellRepPhysSci, led by @Fayeyap25, shows that elastomer curing speed doubles with each 10 °C increase in temperature while retaining mechanical properties. Story by @RiceUNews: https://news.rice.edu/news/2024/rice-research-could-advance-soft-robotics-manufacturing-design
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Our work in @CellRepPhysSci, led by @Fayeyap25, shows that elastomer curing speed doubles with each 10 °C increase in temperature while retaining mechanical properties. Story by @RiceUNews: https://news.rice.edu/news/2024/rice-research-could-advance-soft-robotics-manufacturing-design
Elastomer curing speed doubles with each 10 °C increase in temperature while retaining mechanical properties! To quantitatively understand how to speed up soft device/robot manufacturing, check out our work led by @Fayeyap25 in @CellRepPhysSci: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.101849
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Elastomer curing speed doubles with each 10 °C increase in temperature while retaining mechanical properties! To quantitatively understand how to speed up soft device/robot manufacturing, check out our work led by @Fayeyap25 in @CellRepPhysSci: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.101849
The @RiceMECH NHTL and @ricePILab show Teflon AF–coated nanotextured aluminum surfaces for "jumping droplet" thermal rectification in our new paper published today: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admi.202300817
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
The @RiceMECH NHTL and @ricePILab show Teflon AF–coated nanotextured aluminum surfaces for "jumping droplet" thermal rectification in our new paper published today: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admi.202300817
Congrats @rasheed_rawand on the publication of your paper on multiplexed inertial coalescence filters with @ricePILab!
Rawand's company, Helix Earth Technologies (currently at @GreentownLabs in #Houston), is hiring for multiple engineering roles.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2024.2305822
Rawand's company, Helix Earth Technologies (currently at @GreentownLabs in #Houston), is hiring for multiple engineering roles.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2024.2305822
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Congrats @rasheed_rawand on the publication of your paper on multiplexed inertial coalescence filters with @ricePILab!
Rawand's company, Helix Earth Technologies (currently at @GreentownLabs in #Houston), is hiring for multiple engineering roles.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2024.2305822
Rawand's company, Helix Earth Technologies (currently at @GreentownLabs in #Houston), is hiring for multiple engineering roles.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2024.2305822
Join our @RiceMECH department as faculty! We have a job posting here: https://apply.interfolio.com/135155
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Join our @RiceMECH department as faculty! We have a job posting here: https://apply.interfolio.com/135155
The @ricePILab had a great time at @SocEngScience #SES2023! We had five talks and two posters featuring @Fayeyap25, Vi Vo, @quisebell, and @JUMETkinmecrazy.
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
The @ricePILab had a great time at @SocEngScience #SES2023! We had five talks and two posters featuring @Fayeyap25, Vi Vo, @quisebell, and @JUMETkinmecrazy.
Projects by @Fayeyap25 and @quisebell of @ricePILab have been covered in back-to-back issues of @cenmag! Check out their talks at @SocEngScience #SES2023 next week, and meet them at the inaugural #SES2023 Future Faculty Symposium on Oct 10 organized by @KejieZhao and @nanshulu.
February 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Projects by @Fayeyap25 and @quisebell of @ricePILab have been covered in back-to-back issues of @cenmag! Check out their talks at @SocEngScience #SES2023 next week, and meet them at the inaugural #SES2023 Future Faculty Symposium on Oct 10 organized by @KejieZhao and @nanshulu.