Chris Fernandez: 2026 Early Career Award recipient

BSBME ’14, MSBME ’15
Co-founder, Executive Chairman and Chief Research Officer, EnsoData

A biomedical engineer whose technical and entrepreneurial leadership in advancing artificial intelligence technologies improve medical data analysis and support more effective patient care.

When Chris Fernandez and his future business partners were finishing up their degrees at UW-Madison in 2014 and 2015, they searched for jobs dealing in artificial intelligence in the medical technology industry. They didn’t find many options.

Their conclusion? “If we want to be an AI team, we’ve got to just go do it ourselves,” Fernandez recalls.

He and fellow alumni Nick Glattard (BSBME ’14, MSBME ’15) and Sam Rusk (BSCmpE ’14) founded EnsoData in 2015. The Madison-based healthcare tech company has U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to use artificial intelligence to accelerate diagnosis of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. The startup grew out of an undergraduate design project in the Department of Biomedical Engineering that Fernandez and Glattard began working on as sophomores.

Fernandez was CEO until 2022, leading the company to the first FDA clearance for AI and machine learning software in the field of sleep medicine. Their software has helped diagnose more than 3.5 million individuals with sleep disorders to date. He’s also published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference abstracts as part of his interest in pushing the use of advanced analytical tools in medicine and biology forward.

“We really do believe that in the next 10 to 30 years, AI models will be involved in every diagnostic and treatment decision that’s made in healthcare in the U.S. and globally,” he says.

How did your engineering education enable your success?

For one, the biomedical engineering program’s design program was the most learning for the fewest credits out of anything that we were involved in. That really forced us to get hands-on, to really get into the experience of prototyping and iteration, working with clients with much greater expertise than yourself, and trying to solve real problems. We participated in all the campus entrepreneurship competitions; that gave us a lot of experience in pitching, trying to connect the technology vision to a business model. The judges that we met ended up being partners at VC funds that funded us. I think the third would be opportunities to participate in research on campus.

What advice would you give today’s students?

Your time on campus is so invaluable and so formative. The friends that you meet, the people you get to associate with through your classes, they are going to end up being your colleagues, your bosses, your team members, your bridesmaids, your groomsmen. And no matter how far away you go, you’re still going to find yourself surrounded by Badgers. It’s just such a prominent institution.

Which do you prefer?

Winter or summer in Madison?
If I could have summer in Madison all year long, I’d take it.

Favorite campus spot?
The Discovery Building. We spent soooo much time there. It felt like home away from home. The Union is also really special, though. The whole campus is good. I have good memories from every part of it.

Favorite campus experience?
Gamedays were such an exciting tradition. To be able to spend the whole day outside with your friends and just enjoy the campus energy and atmosphere was really special to be a part of.