Alyssa Olivas received her bachelor’s degree in biology in 2017 from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), where she is a current PhD candidate in biomedical engineering. She is a research assistant in the Stanley E. Fulton Gait Research & Movement Analysis Laboratory studying gait speed, lower extremity biomechanics, and live animation biofeedback in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She has been the lead teaching assistant in UTEP’s Undergraduate Biomechanics Lab for one year and was a previous instructor for Engineering for Kids El Paso West. She is the recipient of the Eloise E. and Patrick B. Wieland Graduate Fellows Endowment and UTEP Doctoral Excellence Scholarship. She has been a presenter for the American Society of Biomechanics Annual Meeting, UMOVE, UTEP Graduate Expo, and UTEP Light it Up Blue for Autism Conference. She served as a mentor for the 2021 TALARIA Remote Summer Research Opportunity, student representative for the Biomedical Engineering PhD Program, and student member of the Diversity Committee for the American Society of Biomechanics. As a future faculty member, Alyssa looks forward to serving on diversity and inclusion committees and contributing to the success of Latinx in STEM. Future research plans include discerning if cognitive functioning is related to distinct movement impairments in ASD, with the long-term goal of using gait analysis as a tool for diagnosis or therapies.

Research Interests

Lower extremity biomechanics in clinical populations