Christopher Cooper

Former Air Force ROTC Cadet Shines

One of Tech's elite, second lieutenant Christopher Cooper, was honored as one of the air force's brightest technical stars. Cooper, along with two young engineers from other institutions devised a program to identify the physical location from which a computer is connecting to the Internet based on its Internet Protocol (IP) address.

The three did the work, called IP geolocation, at the Advanced Course in Engineering Professional Development 2ltTraining Program in Rome, N.Y.

The offshoot: locate anything that has an IP address. For now, that is mainly computers and other mobile Internet devices. Cooper says,You may want to find the 'bad guy' who could be hacking systems, pirating or downloading child porn, or the command and control center of an adversary."

The uses, then, range from gathering military intelligence to monitoring economic activity.

The effort was "a first step," but the prospects are "pretty huge," Cooper says. "The way the Internet is connected lends itself to hiding--in part because routing is not always direct." The range of their initiative: a 100-kilometer radius. "However," Cooper adds, "combined with other intelligence and information, you could narrow it down a good deal."

Cooper graduated from Tech with a dual degree in electrical and computer engineering. He was the cadet wing commander during his final spring semester.

Along with his teammates, who are from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received an award from the chief of staff of the air force at the US Air Force Academy in September, 2009. Lt. Col. Kerry Beaghan, former head of the Air Force ROTC Detachment at Tech, said Cooper was an outstanding leader while on campus, and his achievement is a measure of the quality of Tech's program.

After Tech, Cooper attended the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) where he focused on Artificial Intelligence graduating with his Master of Science in Computer Engineering in March of 2011.

While at AFIT, Cooper earned the following honors:

• Top 10% of 229 graduates ("Distinguished Graduate") in the Graduate School
• Winner (#1/229) Lt Edwin E. Aldrin Award for exceptional leadership in Graduate School (Cooper was the first 2Lt to win this award)
• Top 20% of 185+ engineering students - Tau Beta Pi membership
• International Student Sponsor of the Year Award winner

Christopher Cooper is currently working at the Sensors Directorate in the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) as a software systems engineer.

Information updated November 2011