Clara Cheung
Product designEngineeringAI/ML Research

I work between product design and engineering, building tools and interfaces for complex knowledge. I stay involved from the first product question to working software, bringing a background in hands-on learning and research.

Now
Senior Innovation Engineer · 3Pillar
Also
Self-directed research & prototypes
Focus
Workflows · Knowledge tools · Agents

Selected work

What I worked onContextYear

Helix Atlas

UX design · Full-stack

Primary UX design and full-stack implementation for a code-intelligence platform, with improvements across the wider Helix experience.

3Pillar · Product2025–26

Bibligraph

Design · Data · Engineering

Designed and built a graph for exploring biblical people, places, events, and ideas, with the sources behind each connection.

Independent · Product2026

Simulagent

Research · Experiments · ML

Built a simulation and research workflow to examine what agents predict, how they act, and whether their understanding changes with the environment.

Independent · Research2026

Construction Lab

Design · Simulation · ML

Designed a robot arm and built a simulation to study construction, recovery, and the choices that keep the next operation possible.

Independent · Research2026

Brushloop

Creative ML · Human evaluation

I locally trained a model for generative p5.js outputs, with thousands of human reviews to explore what makes an image worth keeping.

Independent · Research2026

Also built

Scripture App Catalogue

Full-stack contributor · SIL Global open source

With limited resources and complex requirements, I helped turn a hackathon brief into a working flow for publishing and finding Scripture apps: package intake, administrator review, and a searchable catalogue.

I scoped tasks and dependencies, built the data model, API, and responsive interface from supplied mockups, and documented setup so others could continue. The work was merged into SIL Global’s repository.

About

I came to engineering through design, along with my patterns of systemic thinking, iterative refinement, and an always curious mindset.

At Nelvana, I built tools to improve creative workflows alongside my visual work. Today, at 3Pillar, I work across product design and engineering.

Approach

  1. Understand the work

    I use feedback, research, and the constraints of the system to find what’s confusing, missing, or worth testing.

  2. Build to learn

    I move between design and code to make ideas testable, then refine them through real use or controlled experiments.

  3. Work with AI

    I scope tasks and coordinate AI agents for research, implementation, and testing. I set the direction and review the results.

  4. Learn from failures

    Production feedback, broken agent predictions, and rejected outputs help me decide what to change next.

Working with

Design
Interaction design · UX research · Prototyping
Build
React · TypeScript · Python · FastAPI
Data
SQL · Knowledge graphs
AI / ML
LLM fine-tuning · Agent systems & evaluation · Embodied AI