Leo Szeto
I find the order inside complex systems. — and build what's never existed before.
Engineer & technical creative. I build the control systems that make extraordinary physical machines behave — turning noisy, high-stakes problems into something ordered, safe, and new.
scroll · present → origin
Big Science · Nusano · 2019–now
Bending particles toward a cure.
I lead control systems and electrical engineering at Nusano, building a particle accelerator that industrializes medical radioisotope production — helping supply the fight against cancer. Physics made precise, safe, and repeatable.
Themed Entertainment · Walt Disney Imagineering · 2012–2016
Making the magic move — safely, on cue.
On the opening team at Shanghai Disneyland, I led the ride-control software for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train — a best-in-class show out front, safety-critical engineering underneath, keeping every guest safe on every ride.
Open Project Space · UCLA · 2010–2011
Igniting the creative potential of everyone.
Back at UCLA, I started Open Project Space to make hands-on engineering something anyone could walk into — one spark spreading into a whole community of builders.
Selected works
The things behind the story.
Every project I've designed and built — filter by Imagineering, OPS, Hardware, Software, or Creative, or switch to the constellation to see how the work connects. (The career chapters above jump straight to their slice.)
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Nusano
fig.01Fast Beam Interlocks on an Event-Based Timing System
An IPAC'26 paper from my control-systems work at Nusano, built on a concept I originated — consolidating fast beam-interlock (machine protection) logic directly into an event-based timing system, so the existing fiber timing network carries interlock data alongside device triggers.
2026 Particle Accelerator Control Systems Machine Protection
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Software
fig.02News Aggregator
A self-hosted daily news digest that pulls headlines from left, center, and right sources, has Claude synthesise them into a balanced summary, and publishes it as a static site — with audio narration, photo carousels, and daily podcasts. Live at digest.leoszeto.com.
2026 Python Claude API RSS
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OPS
fig.03Open Project Space 2.0
The nationwide evolution of the hands-on engineering program I founded at UCLA — OPS 2.0 brings IEEE at UCLA's project-based hardware curriculum to student engineering chapters across the country.
2020 Engineering Education Hardware IEEE
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Imagineering
fig.04
Shanghai Disneyland
As a Ride Controls Software Engineer, I designed and implemented the control software for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Shanghai Disneyland — a best-in-class, family-oriented roller coaster.
2016 Ride Control Systems PLC Safety-Critical Software
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Creative
fig.05Board Game Design
Math + creativity = fun. I study game design and have developed two board games, balancing mechanics, math, and playtesting into something genuinely fun.
2015 Game Design Prototyping
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Imagineering
fig.06
Mini Coaster
A miniature but fully functional roller coaster built for the WDI Open House — PLC-controlled with real block-zoning logic that detects dangerous situations like a valleying train and brings the system to a safe state.
2015 PLC Block-Zone Logic Reed Switches
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Creative
fig.07
Cycling
Pursuing an active lifestyle on two wheels — cycling is how I get outdoors and stay moving between projects.
2014 Cycling
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Software
fig.08
SPAx Website
The website for IEEE-USA's Student Professional Awareness (SPAx) program — built to promote and organize student professional-experience events.
2014 Web Development IEEE-USA
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Creative
fig.09
Arts
Integrating passion with skill — creative work outside of engineering that keeps the design muscles sharp.
2012 Art Design
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Hardware
fig.10
Project Atlas
A modular Natcar designed as an educational platform — built from an analog front end, a full-featured BLDC motor controller, a power board, and a microcontroller board so other students can extend and redesign it.
2012 Embedded Systems BLDC Motor Control Analog Front End
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Hardware
fig.11
CMouse
A dynamic maze-solving micromouse — built to navigate and map an unknown maze on the fly.
2012 Embedded Systems Maze Solving Robotics
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Software
fig.12
CSim Simulator
A maze-solving algorithm visualization GUI — step through and watch different maze-solving strategies explore and converge in real time.
2012 GUI Algorithms Visualization
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Hardware
fig.13
3× Lithium Polymer Charger
A finger-sized, low-cost charger that tops up three lithium-polymer batteries at once for about $2.50 per charger — built to support UCLA IEEE's OPS program instead of paying $10 per single charger.
2012 PCB Design Power Electronics Battery Charging
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Hardware
fig.14
Pomegranate
A compact 80 mm × 80 mm micromouse robot with every component for precise movement mounted on a single PCB — including a Bluetooth port and a 6-DOF inertial measurement unit.
2012 Embedded C PCB Design Bluetooth
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Software
fig.15
Project Survival
A top-down shooter game — a hobby game-development project exploring movement, enemy waves, and shooting mechanics.
2012 Game Development Unity
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Hardware
fig.16
Project Synchron
A Natcar automation platform — the software framework behind the modular Natcar work, coordinating sensing, control, and motor drive.
2012 Automation Control Systems Embedded Software
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Software
fig.17
ToneMatrix Clone
A sequential music generator — a clone of the classic ToneMatrix that turns a grid of toggled cells into looping melodies.
2012 JavaScript Audio Generative Music
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Software
fig.18
VisRoute
A logistics algorithm visualization GUI — lays out routing and logistics algorithms graphically so their decisions can be inspected step by step.
2012 GUI Algorithms Logistics
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Hardware
fig.19
Christmas Light Equalizer
A sound-driven light interface that pulses Christmas lights in time with music — a simple, festive take on an audio equalizer.
2011 Embedded Systems Audio Processing
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Hardware
fig.20
SkyTanX
A telepresence robot driven over Skype — call the robot to get its live video/audio feed, then steer it with typed commands or a vision-based virtual joystick. Zero client-side setup beyond Skype.
2011 Python Skype API Image Processing
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Creative
fig.21
Music
My passion for drums — playing rock and blues with a group of fellow engineering students who gather to step away from rigorous studies and just have fun with music.
2010 Drums Live Performance
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OPS
fig.22
Open Project Space 1.0
The original Open Project Space — the year-long, hands-on electronics program I created at UCLA IEEE, with a wiki of projects, hardware references, and how-to guides for student members.
2010 Engineering Education Hardware IEEE
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Hardware
fig.23
Hally the Line Follower
My first foray into robotics — a path-following robot built with a team at Skyline College, based on the Society of Robots "$50 Robot", and presented at an undergraduate research symposium at Stanford.
2009 Microcontrollers Sensors Actuators
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Hardware
fig.24
Johnny 5
Our 2009 US FIRST Robotics competition robot.
2009 Robotics FIRST Robotics
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Creative
fig.25
Photography
Capturing moments in my life — a hobby that started in 2009 with a used Nikon D200 handed down from my dad, a fellow Nikon shooter.
2009 Nikon DSLR Photography
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Software
fig.26
Project Canine
A summer research project (NSF / Auburn University) that derived a working dog's motions from noisy sensor data using a machine learner and GUI — built around Major, a Labrador Retriever wearing a remote sensing and comms package.
2009 Machine Learning GUI Sensor Fusion
Constellation of the work — click a node to open a project.
Let's build something
I'm always happy to talk about control systems, engineering, or a new idea worth making real. Reach out through any of the channels below.
Notes ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Thinking out loud — a living garden of notes on systems, learning, and building in public.