Full-Time Faculty

Dr. Wootton teaches fundamental courses in mechanics and mechanical engineering (fluid and solid mechanics, engineering mechanics/dynamics), and bioengineering electives (Biotransport, Injury Biomechanics and Safety, Tissue Engineering).  He has advised a variety projects for seniors, freshmen, master’s degree, and independent studies, including: exercise equipment for overweight teens; experimental systems for impact injury, bone interference screw strength, knee mechanics, and upper airway mechanics; folding bicycle design; microchannel blood platelet inhibition assay; bone and osteochondral tissue engineering scaffold manufacturing; bone interference screw testing, and atomic force microscopy. 

Dr. Wootton’s main research interests are biofluid and biosolid mechanics and biotransport modeling,  Current research projects in this area include magnetic resonance image-based upper airway fluid and solid mechanics models to better understand anatomic and neuromuscular factors contributing to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and novel (often CAD/CAM based) manufacturing methods for tissue engineering scaffolds and constructs.  His past studies in this area include models of flow, near-wall platelet concentration, and platelet accumulation in arterial thrombosis, which linked the flow field features typically found in advanced atherosclerosis (artery disease) with the enhanced rate of blood clot formation (thrombosis) associated with many heart attacks and strokes.  He also developed an experimental and computational model of thrombolytic (“clot-busting”) drug therapy in remnants of thrombus adhering to a vessel wall after blood flow is reestablished.   His research is currently supported by federal grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, and he has been supported by the American Heart Association.  Dr. Wootton is also interested in introducing novel experiments and demonstrations in the engineering curriculum, and participates in an NSF-sponsored project to bring microfluidics experiments into the introductory courses in fluid mechanics and Biotransport.  He is collaborating with Professor Delegrammatikas and Cooper Alum and ME lab manager John Consiglio to introduce particle image velocimetry (PIV) to undergraduate student courses and  projects (funded by NSF).

Dr. Wootton studied Mechanical Engineering Cornell University (BS 1987), MIT (MS 1990), and Georgia Tech (PhD 1998), and Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech (PhD subject area) and Johns Hopkins University (Postdoc 1998-2000).  His professional experience includes Crashworthiness and Safety Engineering at General Motors, environmental noise and vibration (Harris Miller Miller and Hanson), and musical instrument repair and restoration (Reuning and Son Violins).

See David Wootton's full CV.

Ja-beom "JB" Koo

Dr. Ja-beom "JB" Koo, earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in 2006 and 2008 respectively from Korea University in South Korea. After graduation, he worked at SK Hynix Semiconductor Inc. in Korea until August 2011, as an Analog Circuit Design Engineer. There, he focused on designing High-speed input/output (I/O) circuit for 512GB Graphic Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) memory chip with 45nm CMOS technology. 

Dr. Koo received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, in March 2016. He then joined the Analog I/O design team at Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, OR for i5/i7 CPU design. After the first tape-in with CMOS 10nm technology, he moved to the RF technology team in Advanced Design group. He worked as a RF/Analog Circuit Design Engineer and participated in 140GHz Transceiver/Receiver system design for server chips communication. He also had additional responsibilities as a lab manager controlling all measurements for Intel 22nm FinFet technology development. His current research interests are in the area of RF IC design for wireless applications.

“I have long admired the belief of the founder, Peter Cooper, that emphasizes the importance of quality education for all. I am excited to join the Electrical Engineering department of Cooper Union and to take part in fulfilling such belief. I am also thrilled to share what I have learned from my experience in the industry as an engineer with the students. I believe that I can help EE students grow into extraordinary engineers as well as researchers in the field.” – Ja-beom "JB" Koo

B.A., Kalahandi College, India
M.A., Sambalpur University, India
M.A., Ph.D., SUNY at Stony Brook

mili shah headshot

Mili Shah received her PhD from the Computational and Applied Mathematics Department at Rice University. Prior to arriving at The Cooper Union in 2018 she was an associate professor at Loyola University Maryland. She has received external grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She currently is working with NIST on calibration and registration problems which have applications in computer vision, manufacturing, and robotics.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.