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Hello! Im Leia,

3rd year Design Engineering student at Imperial College London

About Me!

I enjoy moving between creative thinking and technical problem solving, bringing together mechanical design, electronics and software to make ideas work. I put the user at the centre of my process, testing early and using feedback to learn from insights and shape solutions around people’s needs.

  • Fusion 360
  • Blender
  • User Research
  • Python
  • MATLAB
  • Figma
  • 3D Printing
  • Usability Testing
  • MicroPython
  • C++
  • Laser Cutting
  • Adobe CC
  • Ideation
  • Visual Storytelling
  • JavaScript

Projects

Top pick CardClutch, a guided card cutter for custom packaging
  • CAD
  • Electronics
  • Human Centred Design
  • Programming
  • DFM
  • Simulation

CardClutch

As a team, we designed CardClutch, a guided card cutter for creating custom packaging around irregular objects. We developed fully functional mechanical, electronic and software systems to combine measuring, box net generation and accurate cutting into one workflow.

Top pick Santa’s Stuck!, an interactive toy of Santa stuck in a chimney
  • Electronics
  • Robotics
  • CAD
  • Programming
  • Human Centred Design

Santa’s Stuck!

Designed a playful interactive toy where users experiment with Santa’s reactions to discover how to help him escape the chimney. I developed the physical mechanisms and interactive system using Bela, C++ and Pure Data, combining sensors, audio, lighting and movement to create responsive behaviour.

Top pick Tool for making bespoke protective foam inserts for museum objects
  • CAD
  • Human Centred Design
  • DFM
  • Electronics

Behind the Collection

Explored the needs, workflows and challenges of GLAM organisations. Through stakeholder interviews, observation, market research and user journey mapping, I identified patterns and opportunities for improvement, translating these insights into a physical tool for creating bespoke protective foam inserts for irregular objects.

Labyrinth, a hand-drawn maze strategy game
  • Programming

Labyrinth

Developed a 2–4 player strategy game where players shift a 7×7 maze and collect matching hearts. Built the game engine in JavaScript with dynamic tile shifting and BFS pathfinding. Hand drew the interface and character animations to add storytelling and create an indie visual style.

CFD flow simulation around a simplified SUV body
  • CAD
  • Simulation

Aerodynamic SUV

Designed and evaluated a simplified SUV geometry for real-world aerodynamic conditions, developing the CAD through benchmarking and iterative design. Using CFD, I analysed flow behaviour, drag and lift to identify key areas affecting aerodynamic performance. These findings were used to evaluate the baseline design and inform a future iteration.

Redesigned economy class aircraft seat
  • Human Centred Design
  • Sustainability

Sustainable Aircraft Seat

Explored the lifecycle of economy class aircraft seating through user research, teardown analysis, market research and an Eco Audit. I developed a modular comfort system compatible with existing seat frames, combining pressure zoned support, active thermal comfort and tool light disassembly for improved circularity.

CFD thermal simulation of a battery cooling plate
  • CAD
  • Simulation
  • DFM

Battery Cooling Plate

Designed and optimised a battery cooling plate for an electric vehicle fleet, balancing temperature uniformity, heat transfer, pressure drop and manufacturability. I developed and evaluated multiple channel geometries using CFD to analyse flow and thermal performance and inform each iteration.

Tilt Quest, a tilting musical table game played by several people
  • CAD
  • Human Centred Design

Tilt Quest

Project exploring how urban spaces can help international newcomers overcome social and cultural barriers and develop a sense of belonging. Through research, co-design and prototyping, we developed a playful, non-verbal experience using shared play, music and cultural exchange to encourage spontaneous interaction.

Contacts

CardClutch

CardClutch by Scotch × Stanley: a handheld guided card cutter combining measurement, guidance and cutting. Product opportunity: archives and collections, custom boxes and small heritage institutes. The initial concept, a programmable box cutter, and our process: discover, define, develop, deliver. Prototype, test, feedback, analysis and refine. The final concept: measure twice, cut once. CardClutch guides users through measuring, box-net generation and accurate cutting using a screen, laser, audio and haptic feedback. User guide and user workflow: measure the object, save dimensions, generate a box net, import to the cutting space, position the cutter, secure the card with the clutch, start the programme, cut, turn, repeat, remove the clutch. Internal system architecture, designed for manufacture. Power, sensing (time of flight sensor, encoders and a rolling ball module), actuation (stepper motor lead screw and servo laser guidance) and safety (magnetic clamp). Tools: Fusion 360, Blender, Python and Ansys. Meet the team: Ikem, Leia, Tim and Will. Individual reflection: bringing mechanical, electronic and functional subsystems together into one cohesive, manufacturable product, managing tolerances, snap-fits, clearances and injection moulding constraints, and validating components with FEA.
View the technical report PDF, 6 MB Find out more Full project page

Santa’s Stuck!

Santa’s Stuck! A playful interactive toy that uses behavioural feedback to create a sense of personality. Users experiment with different interactions to help Santa escape the chimney and deliver their present. Interactions: push him down, tickle his belt, pull his beard, knock a sequence, collect the present. Designing joy through interaction: observe Santa’s mood through his reactions, connect different actions to behaviour-driven states, and solve the right sequence to help Santa deliver his presents. My role: I designed all mechanical components in CAD, prepared the laser cut parts, built the electronics and programmed the interactive system, while my partner focused on the video and helped with the decorations.
Mechanism development: Bela with C++ and Pure Data processes capacitive touch, piezo, limit switch and button inputs, controlling the mechanism and generating responsive real-time audio. 3D printing for rapid prototyping. Inspiration from Disney Imagineering and escape rooms. Vertical chimney movement driven by a screw linear actuator. Present reveal driven by a gear train and rack-and-pinion with a 20:1 gear reduction to synchronise with Santa’s movement. Head shaking: one servo creates a sharp “no” shake or a gentle laughing wobble, with non-blocking millis() timing. Late night testing occasionally turned Santa a little demonic. Interaction flow map: from the start, belt tickles and beard pulls move Santa between happy, neutral and angry states. Tapping the chimney when happy makes Santa drop down and deliver the present; when angry he refuses as you are on the naughty list.

Behind the Collection

Pigeonhold project overview. Aim: to identify unmet user and market needs within archives and collection management, then translate these insights into a viable, user centred product. The project was split into group research and individual development. Group research: 1. Gather context, 2. User research, 3. Insight synthesis, each with key learnings. Group research continued: 6. Journey mapping, creating personas and mapping user workflows, and 5. Market analysis, comparing existing products, each with key learnings. Individual development, product design: generating and refining design concepts, with iteration sketches, the final concept that traces an object and cuts a bespoke foam insert with a heated rod on an XYZ rail system, and how it works: trace, home, cut. Find Out More Find Out More Find Out More Find Out More Find Out More Find Out More
Read the full process 18 slides

Labyrinth

Choose 2–4 players and take turns on one screen. Best played expanded on a laptop or desktop.

Overview: Labyrinth is a browser based version of the Labyrinth board game, built with JavaScript ES modules, functional game logic, BFS pathfinding, sprite animations and automated testing. Tools: JavaScript, ES Modules, Ramda, HTML/CSS, Mocha and JSDoc. A 2–4 player strategy game where players shift a 7×7 maze to create new paths, then move around the board to collect three colour-matched hearts. The four hand-drawn characters, Earth, Fire, Shadow and Wind, each with their heart. I designed and hand drew the characters and visual elements to give the game an indie, illustrated style, using visual storytelling throughout the interface to make the experience more engaging and help communicate the game’s world and objectives. I built the game so that the game logic is kept separate from the DOM, which made it easier to test the rules independently and update the board as the game changes. Architecture: menu.js handles player selection and the screen transition, then hands over to game.js, the game engine handling board state, rules, shifts, movement and pathfinding. game.js updates Stats.js, which tracks the hearts collected by each player, and Labyrinth.js, which handles DOM rendering, user interaction and sprite animations. Key implementations. Immutable game state: rather than changing the existing game state, each action creates a new state, which helped prevent unexpected changes and made the game logic easier to test. BFS pathfinding: breadth-first search finds which tiles a player can reach and generates the route between two positions. Dynamic tile shifting: shifting a row or column moves the tiles around the board, including carrying any players standing on that line, and the spare tile wraps around to the opposite side. Ramda: used for a number of collection and transformation operations, keeping some of the game logic and test code more concise.

Aerodynamic SUV

Designing an Aerodynamic SUV. Design summary: a simplified SUV geometry for real-world conditions, analysed with CFD to assess flow, drag and lift and propose targeted improvements, focusing on underbody flow, wheelhouse flow and the rear wake. Streamline plot over the SUV. Learning outcomes: understanding underbody, wheelhouse and wake flow; creating CFD-ready CAD in Blender; interpreting pressure, velocity and streamline plots; critically evaluating simulation results. CFD results overview: the model achieved a drag coefficient of about 0.361, a reasonable SUV-range value. The rear wake is dominated by a large low-pressure recirculation zone; the diffuser, rear wheel arches and rear roof slope show separation; and the lateral guide vanes act more like vortex shedders. Changed regions on the original design.
Read the process

Sustainable Aircraft Seat

Sustainable Design Engineering. Aim: to explore how economy-class aircraft seating could be made more sustainable by understanding the environmental, user and market challenges across the seat’s lifecycle, then identifying opportunities for circular design. Group research: investigating stakeholders, user experience, material waste, manufacturing and end of life, market benchmarks, a physical teardown and an Eco Audit, then developing How Might We questions. Key How Might We questions discovered, covering modular branding interfaces, repurposing composite parts, modular upgrades, seat-to-aircraft fastening and reconfigurable seat bases. Individual design: the selected and refined HMW, redesigning the comfort layer of economy seats as a modular add-on to existing frames. Final concept, before and after, and key requirements: circularity, frame compatibility and comfort. Final concept details: fasteners with keyhole tabs and steel C-spring clips, in-seat heating and cooling, and mono-material PET suspension fabric, seat cover and foam. Discover The Research Discover The Research

Battery Cooling Plate

Battery Cooling Plate. Aim: design a cooling plate pipeline geometry that maintains temperature uniformity across the battery surface, minimising thermal gradients to preserve battery longevity while providing effective heat transfer. Initial design and final iteration, with key features: a hybrid serpentine-parallel configuration, consistent diameter and bend curvature, and pressure management. Learning outcomes: creating CFD-ready meshes, using CFD to guide iterations, and balancing thermal performance, pressure drop and manufacturability. Initial vs final design overview: CFD results evaluation of uneven temperature flow distribution and low heat flux, with temperature streamlines and lambda 2 vortices. Improvement summary: temperature spread reduced from 15.2 °C to 12.3 °C, average temperature from 42.8 °C to 35.1 °C and maximum temperature from 48 °C to 38.9 °C, with pressure drop rising from 79.6 Pa to 110 Pa. Team responsibilities for Leia, Aliyah, Kyara and Aliza.
Read the process

Tilt Quest

Using play to bring communities together. Stage 1 overview: with an Urban Play brief, this human centred design project explored how urban spaces could help international newcomers overcome social and cultural barriers and develop a sense of belonging, focusing on spontaneous, low-pressure and non-verbal interactions. Research process: observations, a survey and interviews, leading to insights and opportunities, personas and journey mapping, and context mapping with an affinity diagram. Stage 2 overview: developing and testing the Tilting Tunes Table, combining shared play, music and cultural exchange, iterated through sketches, co-design sessions and prototypes into an open cross-shaped frame needing at least two players. Requirements and evidence: easily interpreted, non-verbal, interactive between people, playful and cultural sharing, visually engaging, and multi-sensory, each backed by user testing. Reflection: the project strengthened human centred design skills, especially uncovering insights through less obvious research methods and keeping users involved throughout to challenge assumptions and refine ideas.
Read About Phase 1 PDF, 9 MB Read About Phase 2 PDF, 28 MB