Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2025
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2022
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (UPRM), 2020
Academic Appointments
  • Teaching Assistant, Kinesiology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2024
Professional Honors
  • Graduate Engineering Research Fellow, UW-Madison
  • Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation Scholar 2019 & 2018
  • Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation - Undergraduate Research Scholar
Languages
  • Spanish

Dr. Hernandez is an expert in the field of biomechanics and human motor learning, including the analysis of human movement, human mechanics, motor control, and rehabilitation strategies. She has extensive experience conducting human subject studies with both healthy and impaired individuals, designing experimental protocols to study motor skill acquisition using custom-built robotic systems, and conducting data analyses to derive clinically relevant insights. Her work also includes analyses of human kinematics and injury mechanics related to motor vehicle, premises, workplace and recreational incidents. 

Dr. Hernandez earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin — Madison, where she conducted research in the Biomechanics, Assistive Devices, Gait Engineering & Rehabilitation (BADGER) Lab. Her doctoral work focused on understanding principles of motor learning in the lower extremities using robot-driven perturbations and virtual task environments. Throughout her graduate studies, she gained extensive experience in designing complex human subject experiments, developing interactive study environments using Python and Unity, controlling robotic systems, and conducting sophisticated data analyses in MATLAB, and R. Her work included a clinical case study with a stroke survivor and the development of study protocols tailored to populations with motor impairments.

Prior to her graduate training, Dr. Hernandez studied at the University of Puerto Rico — Mayagüez, where she held two co-op positions in the medical device industry, gaining hands-on experience with manufacturing validation, process development, regulatory compliance, and integration of new devices into production environments. She simultaneously conducted research across biomechanics, biomaterials, and microfluidics, characterizing mechanical and tribological properties of biomaterials, analyzing bio-microfluidic particle behavior, and studying metabolic energy consumption while walking under varying torso lean conditions.