I'm Angel Hernandez, a Mechanical Engineer.

evergait™ Go is a wearable, fully mechanical gait-rehabilitation device developed at USF's REED Lab that helps stroke survivors correct asymmetric walking patterns — replicating the benefits of clinical split-belt treadmill therapy during natural, over-ground walking, with no motors or batteries required. Learn more at evergait.com →

• Leading the CAD design in SolidWorks and rapid prototyping of the 3D-printed foot attachment under Dr. Kyle Reed, running through 11 physical design iterations to refine fit and function.
• Optimized FDM printing parameters and toolpaths in Bambu Studio for composite filaments (PA-CF / TPU), achieving a 60% increase in structural rigidity while cutting print cycle times by 14%.
• Coordinated with a 4-person team to manually assemble prototypes, troubleshoot tight clearance and tolerance issues, and run physical load and fit tests — reducing post-processing and fitting adjustments by 40%.

• Leading mechanical design and scoping for a lightweight wearable mechanical-loading suit to mitigate bone density loss in microgravity across multi-environment missions (ISS, Lunar, and Martian gravity).
• Collaborating cross-functionally with two labs — the USF Carey RRT Lab and Cardiff University's MSKBRF — to define CAD packaging constraints and load-distribution targets.
• Conducting primary technical interviews with a two-time NASA Space Shuttle astronaut to establish ergonomic thresholds and force requirements for daily wear of the device.
• Developing experimental test protocols using multi-axis force plates and 3D optical motion capture systems to validate dynamic axial musculoskeletal loading against target baseline goals.

• Designed and modeled a custom threaded sealing cap in SolidWorks to eliminate clay dehydration and nozzle clogging in automated ceramic 3D printers.
• Manufactured functional PLA prototypes via FDM, optimizing wall thickness and thread clearances to ensure an airtight mechanical seal under continuous studio use.
• Deployed the final component across active printers in the JGHC Art Studio, cutting material waste and setup/maintenance downtime to zero, and presented the design through USF's Tech Transfer office to validate its mechanical viability and commercial scalability for other campus locations.

• Designed a five-link, pedal-actuated mechanism — foot pedal, connecting rod, and pivoting blade on a rigid frame — that lets users chop food with their feet, keeping hands safely away from the blade.
• Modeled the mechanism's skeleton diagram and mechanism graph to trace motion from pedal input to blade output, and added a tension spring between the frame and blade to auto-return it to the open position after each chop.
• Reduced pivot friction with lubricated pins and tight tolerances, used a rigid steel frame for repeated-use durability, and added a silicone pad under the pedal base to keep it from sliding — refined through testing with a four-person team.

• Led the design phase for a functional robot car prototype as part of a multi-role team.
• Modeled the chassis in TinkerCAD and integrated the electronic components for final assembly.
• Delivered a working robot that met all STEM competition requirements and helped drive student engagement at the outreach event.

• Modeled a complete wheelchair assembly in SolidWorks — support rods, wheels, wheel-rod connectors, and the seat/frame — choosing realistic materials for each part (rubber wheels, gray cast iron rods, an A286 superalloy seat) based on measurements taken from a real wheelchair.
• Produced a full exploded-view assembly drawing with balloon callouts and a bill of materials, plus individual part drawings for every component, using more than ten distinct SolidWorks features.
• My first SolidWorks project — grounded the design by comparing it against two reference wheelchairs to understand which features were essential versus which just added unnecessary complexity.

• Applied classical lamination theory in MATLAB to analyze a 60° glass/epoxy lamina — computing the transformed stiffness matrix, local stresses and strains, and the four failure-theory strength ratios.
• Extended the analysis to a [0/30/45/90]s glass/epoxy laminate under in-plane loading, finding the [A], [B], and [D] stiffness matrices, midplane strains and curvatures, and effective laminate moduli.
• Used the Tsai-Wu failure theory to identify the governing first-ply-failure strength ratio across the top, middle, and bottom of each ply — the same framework the course later applies to optimize a composite drive shaft's ply layup.

• Built a MATLAB app that looks up any country — by dropdown or typed name — and pulls its population, capital city, area, and flag in real time from the REST Countries API.
• Rendered the fetched flag image directly in the app, and added a "Show in Google Maps" button that opens the country's location in the browser.
• Designed a custom UI in MATLAB App Designer, with a styled layout and color theme, and added error handling with alert dialogs for invalid country names — my first introduction to programming within the mechanical engineering curriculum.