Thomas J McLeish
Thomas J. McLeish is a Lecturer in the Master of Design program at UC Berkeley, where he teaches Designing Emerging Technologies—a graduate studio focused on integrating AI, multimodal models, and connected systems into interaction design. His background spans AI systems, prototyping, and behavioral modeling—from early work on an AI-based design assistant at the MIT Media Lab to building machine learning models from distributed sensing data as CTO of Iota Partners. He also teaches Prototyping the Future: AI Tools for Designers at California College of the Arts and has consulted on applied AI and RAG systems for organizations such as WildThink and the Dubberly Design Office. His work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou and ZKM, including a reconstruction of Gordon Pask’s Colloquy of Mobiles. Thomas combines systems design, technical depth, and creative inquiry to advance responsible, applied uses of AI in design.
Speaker Sessions
Author an Agent: Designing AI Through Play
This hands-on workshop introduces the fundamentals of AI system design through collaborative role play. Using a card game that simulates how AI agents work, participants take on roles like architect, retriever, and model to design and operate a functional AI system in response to a shared goal. Through iterative rounds of testing and reflection, players adjust system instructions, model behavior, and knowledge sources—gaining practical insight into concepts like prompt design, RAG pipelines, and tool integration. The experience is both playful and intentional, inviting participants to explore how intelligent behavior is authored, constrained, and evaluated. No technical experience required—just curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to engage.