She was lead designer of Danny Hillis' Connection Machine

this is misleading.... she didn't design TM's compute/networking HW, only the systems' chassis & skins.

Which is to say she was responsible for how those machines looked, but not for how they worked... She did a stellar job in that regard, tho.

Interview with Tamiko Thiel who led design of The Connection Machine and created the first VR world with Stephen Spielberg.