W+SN Co-Director

Associate Professor Leah Heiss is an award-winning designer, CSIRO visiting designer/scientist and Co-director of the Wearables and Sensing Network. Through collaborative projects Leah has brought human centred design to technologies for hearing loss, diabetes and pre-diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gut disease and loneliness. Her wearable technologies include jewellery to administer insulin, cardiac monitoring jewellery, swallowable devices to detect disease and emergency jewellery for times of medical crisis. Her current work investigates the use of stretchable sensors for heart health, pre-diabetes, and aged care COVID monitoring. Leah's Tactile Tools design thinking approach has been used by over 250 people in diverse sectors to iteratively address complex challenges including end of life experience, acquired brain injury, low birth weight and voluntary assisted dying. Her design work has been exhibited globally to audiences exceeding 650,000 people and is held in the Museums Victoria Heritage Collection.