Dr. Monifa Vaughn-Cooke Awarded VA SPIRE Grant

Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Monifa Vaughn-Cooke was recently awarded a Veteran Administration (VA) SPIRE Grant and will serve on assignment at the VA for a portion of the next two years.

The multi-institution interdisciplinary project includes VA, UMMC, and UMB Investigators. The research focuses on the development and validation of a virtual reality (VR) system to aid in balance and reach tests for individuals with compromised motor functioning. This work is an extension of Dr. Vaughn-Cooke’s prior research developing novel health care solutions for high-risk populations in mixed reality platforms.

She is the director of the Hybrid-Systems Integration and Simulation Laboratory, an experimental facility for modeling and testing human performance, where a portion of the proposed simulation development will take place.

Published February 6, 2020