Bionic legs and torpedoes would appear to hold little in common. However, Robert Hernandez applies lessons he learned designing prosthetic legs at the University of Rhode Island to America’s next generation of underwater weapons systems.

Hernandez, who holds a master’s (’10) and doctorate (’14) in electrical engineering from URI, spent his academic career studying computer hardware and algorithms that interface between a human nervous system and a prosthetic leg. He took that information and applied it at his day job as a torpedo systems engineer at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I.

“Once you take the 1,000-foot view instead of the 10-foot view, you see how selection criteria for a computer architecture are not necessarily determined by the system, but instead by guidelines developed to compare the architectures against one another,” says Hernandez, who lives in Middletown, R.I.

The signal processing performed by URI’s neural-machine-interface is similar to many naval systems. The underlying concept is the same – take in lots of raw data, pre-process it then use classifications techniques to make a decision, whether it’s how far to move a prosthetic leg or the targeting of a weapon. Hernandez and URI researchers created guidelines that outline what computer hardware and algorithms work best given different goals.

For the Navy, Hernandez spearheads one or two naval projects while providing a hand to projects that run into issues. His Ph.D. is allowing him to take a research role designing next-generation systems and he often rides on naval vessels to see the systems up close. His research garnered national attention in 2014 when the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers bestowed on him its Hispanic in Technology Government Award, noting his innovative troubleshooting skills.

For his part, Hernandez says he likes a challenge and just getting to the warfare center proved one.

Hernandez grew up in a low-income section of Brooklyn, New York with his mother as the sole provider. Hernandez watched her almost sell their house twice to raise money and saw many neighbors unable to climb the socioeconomic ladder. But his mother encouraged him and he won a scholarship to attend Polytechnic University in Brooklyn in 1988.

Struggling to find a job in New York City, Hernandez applied to the Navy, which offered him an engineering position in Newport. He accepted in 1992 and planned to stay two years. To his surprise, he found a home in the Ocean State and fell in love with his job.

By 2008, he convinced his managers to let him pursue a graduate degree. At the time, URI operated the Center for Excellence for Undersea Technology and it offered the perfect marriage of electrical engineering and ocean technology. He enjoyed school so much he stayed for his Ph.D., ultimately graduating with a 4.0.

Hernandez says his academic career led him to appreciate the first-rate curriculum and dedication of engineering faculty, especially his mentors Jien-Chung Lo and Qing Yang.

He also saw the passion of students and these days helps recruit them to careers at the warfare center. Hernandez says he especially encourages young people who face challenging life situations like those that he experienced.

“Growing up in an inner-city neighborhood, I thought I was destined to be a failure,” he says. “I never expected I would be here. This is amazing. I’m doing something for our country and to protect democracy. I want kids to realize they have the opportunity to be something.”