In 1995, she earned her degree in Nuclear Engineering from Instituto Balseiro (Balseiro Institute), Argentina, one of the most prestigious research centers in Latin America. In 1999, she earned her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and went on to complete her Ph.D., also in Mechanical Engineering, from MIT. From 2001-2005, Dr. Rugonyi held a postdoctoral fellowship at OHSU, after which she became an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at OHSU. In 2011, she was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.