How Meriyah Deleon Haro Is Going to Engineer Magic

For Meriyah Deleon Haro, engineering has never been about equations alone — it has always been about wonder.

A defining moment for Haro came from a deceptively simple illusion: the use of the Pepper’s Ghost effect in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.

As the guests ride through the attraction, translucent figures materialize in front of them — dancing in ballrooms, floating through corridors and interacting with the physical sets. Though the ghosts seem to occupy the same space as the riders, the effect is created through carefully angled glass, lighting and hidden rooms that reflect real objects into view. This blend of optics and physics captured Haro's curiosity.

“That was one of the first times I really stopped and thought, ‘How are they doing this?’” she said.

Now, a third-year electrical and computer engineering student at the University of California, Davis, and the founder and president of Women in Robotics Club at UC Davis, Haro has been driven by a question that’s intrigued her since childhood: How does this work?

Thanks to frequent trips to Disney theme parks and encounters with lifelike animatronics, Haro has long been fascinated by the invisible systems that create unforgettable experiences. Now, she is turning that curiosity into a career path at the intersection of engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence and entertainment.

“I realized pretty early on that what feels like magic is really engineering,” Haro said. “That realization completely changed how I saw the world.”

Creating Immersive Experiences with Electrical Engineering 

Haro did not always envision herself as an engineer. In high school, she briefly considered law before realizing she was far more captivated by how things were built, especially in immersive entertainment environments like theme parks. Attractions at Disneyland, Universal Studios and Lucasfilm-inspired experiences sparked her imagination, pushing her to look beyond the spectacle and toward the systems behind it.

That curiosity led her to explore the disciplines that make modern entertainment possible: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and software engineering. Electrical engineering, in particular, stood out.

“There’s something about electricity that’s always fascinated me,” she said. “It’s what gives systems life. Without it, nothing moves, nothing responds.”

As modern attractions increasingly rely on AI, Haro is particularly excited by the future of immersive experiences that use artificial intelligence to respond to guests in real time. Rather than delivering the same preprogrammed response to every visitor, these systems can acknowledge individual actions and dialogue, creating a level of immersion that feels uniquely human. For Haro, this evolution represents the future of entertainment engineering. One where technology doesn’t just impress but actively connects.

“AI allows interactions to feel personal,” she said. “That level of immersion is what people have been wanting for years.”

As her education continues, Haro plans to take additional courses focused on applied machine learning. For her, AI represents both a technical challenge and a creative opportunity.

“It’s still a field that’s being actively shaped,” she said. “I want to understand it deeply — not just how to use it, but how it works so I can apply it to interactive, immersive systems.”

Building Skills and Community in Robotics

As a woman entering a traditionally male-dominated field, Haro is deeply committed to creating space for women in engineering. That commitment led her to found Women in Robotics Club at UC Davis, a student organization aimed at fostering community, technical growth and confidence among women engineers.

“Plain and simple, there just aren’t enough women in engineering,” Haro said. “I wanted to create a community where women could feel supported and seen.”

Under her leadership, the club emphasizes both technical skills — such as programming, circuits and systems design — and identity. Haro is unapologetic about embracing femininity alongside engineering.

“I don’t believe you should have to mask who you are to be taken seriously,” she said. “You can love pink, be feminine and still be an engineer. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.”

The club’s main project initially centered on a rover concept, but its focus has shifted toward preparing for more competitive-style robotics competitions. Under Haro’s leadership, the team adopted a more structured approach, emphasizing system-level design and scalable prototyping in preparation for competitive robotics challenges.

“That’s engineering, too,” she said. “You reassess, troubleshoot and adapt.”

Engineering Happiness

Haro is an active member of the Theme Entertainment Association, where she has connected with industry professionals from Disney and Universal, including UC Davis electrical and computer engineering alum Amanda Rodriguez ’13, who develops rides and attractions for Universal Studios in Orlando.

These conversations have shaped her vision of a career in theme park engineering, where she will contribute to attractions, animatronics and immersive systems that create lasting memories.

“If someone walks away from an attraction and remembers it for the rest of their life, and I was part of the team that built it, that’s success to me,” she said.

At its core, Haro’s work is about joy. Whether through a robot, a ride or a responsive AI system, she sees engineering as a way to inspire wonder and possibility, especially for young women who may one day follow in her footsteps.

“I want other girls to look at these attractions and think, ‘I want to build that,’” she said. 

For Haro, the magic was never an illusion.

“Engineering is creative. It’s powerful. And it can bring happiness to so many people.”