INDD Student Wins Grand Prize in LEGO Design Student Challenge

by Kate Mazade

LEGO bricks assembled to resemble DJ equipment, including a mixing board, turntables, and a microphone, on a plain background.

Mia Spilotro followed her passion for toy design to create an award-winning design that encourages adults to experiment.

Young woman with curly hair wearing a brown off-the-shoulder sweater, smiling in front of a plain gray background.
Mia Spilotro

Spilotro, an Industrial Design (INDD) student in the School of Industrial and Graphic Design (SIGD), was recently named the Grand Prize winner in the 2026 LEGO Design Student Challenge, a competition that challenges design students to create an original concept using LEGO products.

For her submission, Spilotro developed “SMART Play Music Studio,” a modular and customizable music system that uses the new LEGO SMART Play System, a product with embedded lights and sounds, to prompt adult users to experiment with music.

Spilotro was inspired by Auburn’s independent music community in which young adults have a passion for listening to, writing, experimenting with and performing music, but often have limited access to costly musical equipment.

A hand spins a circular plate on a rectangular LEGO structure called The Turntable, designed to move SMART Tags closer or farther from a SMART Brick.
The circular plate spins coordinating sounds by proximity to the SMART Brick.

“My research into this community influenced my design process by guiding me towards creating something that these musicians could work with and play with, instead of creating a set that merely represented them,” Spilotro said, explaining that she interviewed local musicians to see how a new product could meet their needs.

Throughout her design process, Spilotro used a combination of sketching and building with LEGO Bricks, before modeling her final design in BrickLink Studio, adapting the observation and iterative design processes she learned in the INDD program.

A LEGO handle with a SMART Brick is shown next to three round LEGO builds labeled as drums, each topped with green and yellow pieces.
The SMART Brick mounted on a drumstick interacts with SMART Tags mounted on three different drums, allowing users to tap out their own rhythms.

“The Industrial Design program set me up for success in this challenge by placing a continued emphasis on human centered design and empathizing with the user, rather than a solely aesthetic approach to design,” she said.

The SMART Play Music Studio includes three components. The Slider slides between studs that are equipped with SMART Tags to play different notes. The Turntable features a circular plate that spins to move SMART Tags closer to the SMART Brick. The Drums are a two-part component with a SMART Brick mounted on a drumstick that interacts with SMART Tags mounted on three different drums.

The relatively simple builds are designed to inspire adult users to play with LEGO beyond the provided instructions, just as children do after the LEGO model is assembled.

A hand slides a yellow piece on a black LEGO-like device with colored buttons, demonstrating a feature called The Slider for playing different notes.
The Slider can play five different notes assigned to SMART tags.

“As an aspiring toy designer, I am honored to have been chosen as a grand prize winner for the LEGO Design Student Challenge,” Spilotro said. “I entered this project because I am passionate about toys and toy design, so winning has given me a boost of confidence that I am headed in the right direction.”

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Student Competitions, Student Experience, Student Recognition, Student Work