Powerhouse on Wheels
Posted on July 11th, 2017 by Mary Lord
Paralympic champion and University of Pittsburgh assistive-technology pioneer Rory Cooper wants people with disabilities to see engineering as a great career.
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Tags: adaptive technologies, assistive technologies, Atheletes, basketball, biomechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, Human Engineering Research Lab, paralypics, Rory Cooper, Sports, students with disabilities, University of Pittsburgh, wheelchair
As a high school sophomore, Tim Balz refurbished his first motorized wheelchair and gave it to a fellow student. Today, Freedom Chairs, the nonprofit he founded and continues to run as a mechanical engineering student at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, has distributed 130 wheelchairs worldwide while he has won awards as a wheelchair innovator and entrepreneur. 
Since 2008, Americans with disabilities have earned more doctorates in science and engineering fields than in non-S&E fields. To mark National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2013, the American Society of Engineering Education salutes these distinguished engineering educators and researchers.
