Cooper discusses his graduate education in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his interest in computer applications to approach problems in plasma physics. He discusses the types of research supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), and the Department of Defense (DoD) in the 1970s and 1980s. He mentions his move in the early 1980s from DoD to military space research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Cooper concludes the interview with a discussion of innovative technology in military and space research. This interview was recorded as part of a research project on the influence of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on the development of computer science in the United States.