RR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application

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Dr. Cooper is a world leading rehabilitation engineer. He is a US Army veteran with spinal cord injuries who has dedicated his career to helping veterans to lead full and rewarding lives through engineering and advancing assistive technology. He has made broad contributions to science, engineering, and capacity building applied to improving the quality of life of veterans with disabilities, and providing them with opportunities to become scientists and engineers. Dr. Cooper is an author on >375 peer-reviewed journal publications, and has >30 patents awarded/pending. His current research activities are focused on the design, engineering, and evaluation of mobility devices and assistive robots for veterans with disabilities. Dr. Cooper is Director of the VA Rehabilitation Research & Development Center (VA-R&RDC) for Wheelchairs and Assistive Robotics, and VA Senior Research Career Scientist. He is currently Principal Investigator (PI) on a VA Merit Review Grant creating and investigating Group 2 powered wheelchair- bed robotic assisted transfer device that does not require the use of a sling or physical effort on the part of the user or assistant. A patent has been awarded. Dr. Cooper is Co-PI on 2 additional VA Merit Review Grants one further developing and investigating pneumatically powered personal mobility devices for Veterans, which Dr. Cooper invented and for which the VA has applied for 2 patents. The other focused on assessment of robotic manipulators to assist veterans with both upper and lower extremity impairments. Dr. Cooper currently mentors 2 VA Career Development Awardees – Drs. Candiotti and Duvall. Dr. Candiotti is working on the Mobility Enhancement Robotic Wheelchair (aka MEBot) that he co-invented with Dr. Cooper et al for which VA has a patent and has another patent pending. Dr. Duvall’s work is extending Dr. Cooper’s contributions related to powered transfer devices for veterans who use Group 3 powered wheelchairs to get in/out of bed and to/from their wheelchair without awkward and often injurious lifting. Dr. Cooper is leading a project with the VA-R&RDC related to origami engineering of assistive devices and the voice of the veteran and voice of the provider. Within the VA Technology Transfer Program, Dr. Cooper leads the VA Technology Transfer Assistance Project, helping VA inventors take their ideas/concepts to prototypes to further VA research and/or to facilitate transfer to the commercial sector to benefit Veterans. Dr. Cooper has a proven track-record of non-VA funding as well with current grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Transportation (DoT). For 10-years, Dr. Cooper was Co-Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) on Quality of Life Technology. ERC’s are flagships within NSF. Dr. Cooper is currently the Director of the DoT University Transportation Center (UTC) focused on Accessible Autonomous Vehicles and Transportation Systems. The DoT-UTC is a collaboration of government, academia, and industry to ensure that as autonomous vehicles and transportation systems become available that they include the needs of people with disabilities and older adults. Dr. Cooper is the Co-PI on 2 NSF grants focused on rehabilitation engineering and on making engineering accessible to people with disabilities. He is a Co- PI on a National Institute for Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) – Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training Grant, and Co-I on the NIDILRR Disability and Rehabilitation Research Program grant on technology transfer and knowledge translation. Dr. Cooper has funding from the US. Department of Defense as co-lead on the State-of-the-Science Symposium since 2004, which has built research collaborations and provided training to >4,000 DoD and VA clinicians and scientists. This work has resulted in 4-books: Care of the Combat Amputee, Warrior Transition Leader Medical Rehabilitation Handbook, and Promoting Successful Integration.