October 22, 2025 —
Meet Dr. Amanda Fernandez, newly appointed Thrust Co-Lead for Machine Leaning and Deployment at MATRIX.
Dr. Fernandez is an Associate Professor and Kay and Steve Robbins Faculty Teaching Fellow, in the College of AI, Cyber, and Computing (CAICC) at UT San Antonio, with an appointment in the Department of Computer Science. Before joining academia, she worked in industry as a software engineer and machine learning researcher, including roles at USAA and in the broader software development sector. She earned her Bachelors in Computer Science from Siena College (NY) and both her Masters and Doctorate from the University at Albany (SUNY).
Learn more about her work through the Vision and Artificial Intelligence Lab and her Directed Research Substack, where she shares practical, research-informed AI strategies grounded in technical expertise for researchers and students.
Her research centers on deep learning and computer vision, supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). At UT San Antonio, she also serves as Faculty Advisor to the ACM-W and Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) student organizations. She is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Reflecting on her involvement with MATRIX, Dr. Fernandez shared:
“As AI rapidly changes the landscape of so many disciplines, MATRIX has been well-positioned to help navigate the changes and anticipate the future. I look forward to continuing to assist scientists in particular in their use of AI for research, while engaging our growing student population.”
MATRIX is honored to welcome Dr. Fernandez into this leadership role and looks forward to her vision in expanding AI training for students and strengthening our collaborative research ecosystem.
Outside the lab, she loves to read and spend time with her three daughters.
Explore our full list of consortium members to discover potential collaborators and connect with researchers advancing interdisciplinary, cross-cutting AI at MATRIX.