David Kuo currently serves as EVP of Engineering at WaHa. He is responsible for product design and advanced development. David joined WaHa in August 2019. He was recruited by Laura Smoliar, ex-Chair of WaHa, and Bruno Marchon, former CTO of WaHa, with whom he had worked at Seagate, to own the development of MOF-based atmospheric water generating (AWG) products. Under David’s leadership, WaHa successfully developed a MOF-based desktop water harvester, which is showcased in the Smithsonian Museum’s Futures that Work exhibit. While the energy costs of a resistive heating and passive desorption mechanism proved workable at small scale, a far bigger challenge lay in developing industrial scale high efficiency systems for separating water molecules from the air. Working in close collaboration with Eugene Kapustin, WaHa CTO, he developed the breakthrough technology which incorporates a high COP heat pump in a closed-loop balanced desorption and condensation MOF-based system resulting in a world-leading energy-efficient sorbent-based dehumidifier and atmospheric water generator. This work has led to the pivot of WaHa, its recapitalization, and relaunch with Mr. Kuo as co-founder.
Prior to joining WaHa, David worked as a Sr. Director for advanced product and technology development at Seagate for 26 years. His team developed the highest areal density hard drive in the market. He led the head disc interface development and collaborated with drive design centers to integrate and qualify new product for mobile hard drives.
David’s team was also involved in bio-medical device developments such as an artificial kidney and DNA sequencing. His team was the industry leader in bit-patterned-media development, which encompassed: e-beam lithography, template fabrication, nano-imprint lithography, magnetic material/mask etch, thin-film deposition and surface planarization techniques to achieve a world record of 5.0 Tera dots per square inch magnetic recording density. In additional to process development, his team also co-developed lithography, etching, and PVD vacuum process equipment with alliance companies. During his Seagate tenure, David and his team has successfully developed many mass-production oriented processes and process equipment that were implemented in Seagate factories in Singapore and China.
David is an inventor of 111 US and worldwide patents. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1989 with a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering specialized in thermal science and heat transfer. Outside of work, David actively engages in community service. He co-founded Connecting.TW, a non-profit organization that shares innovation experience between Taiwan and US professionals. David teaches innovation classes in both Tatung and Asia Universities in Taiwan. He enjoys drumming and hiking in his spare time.