A team of Albert Nerken School of Engineering students took home the $10,000 prize at this year’s New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID) Cultivating Resources for Employment with Assistive Technology (CREATE) Symposium in Albany, New York. The annual event showcases design projects by students who are designing assistive technologies that help remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities. 

The Cooper team of mechanical engineering students, consisting of seniors Abigail Berg, Justice Candelario, Francisco Guzman, and Eun-Soe (Colette) Lee under the faculty advisement of Professor David Wootton, worked with the non-profit CP Unlimited that supports people with cerebral palsy in the workplace. The team designed and built a more accessible secure cabinet for CP Unlimited’s paper shredding room with a scissor lift mechanism that automatically brings the paper to the desired height. The lift removes a need for the user to bend down and reach in to grab documents. The cabinet has a pull-out drawer for easy access to the papers, and support handles on the top provide stability for users. 

“The CREATE competition has helped Cooper Union to engage with the community, and specifically with CP Unlimited, for several years, leading to five separate design projects, including three this year,” notes Professor Wootton. “Students get valuable, real-world human-centered design experience from their participation, and the satisfaction of creating something tangible to help people overcome barriers in the workplace.”

Willow Baer, commissioner of the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), and Maureen O’Brien, president and CEO of NYSID, presented the 2025 awards. Cooper engineering students have placed in the top three in each of the past three years that they have participated in CREATE, and the cash award has been divided by the students, Cooper Union, and Cooper's rehabilitation partner.

This year's design project was completed as part of the Capstone Senior Mechanical Engineering Design class (ME 393/394) and was supported by the IDC Foundation AACE Lab, Student Shop lab technician Max Summer, and Melody Baglione, George Clark Chair of Mechanical Engineering, who assisted with connecting the students to CP Unlimited and co-advising the team.