Cooper Hewitt says...
Young inventor Robert E. Bolen earned a BS in Business Administration from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Administration in 2020. He created his first invention, the Button Helper assistive dressing device in 2013, while still a teenager in high school. His first patent, for a twist-lock button, was granted in 2017. He has since earned three additional patents (2017-18), with two more applications pending (2021, 2024). A winner of the 2020 Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize, in 2021 he partnered with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to further develop and redesign the Button Helper. In addition to the VA, Bolen has cultivated partnerships with organization such as regional hospitals, senior living centers, and the Parkinsons Foundation, to expand distribution of the device to users with different needs and abilities, provided at no cost to the individual consumer. Bolen shares his expertise as an Expert-on-Call at Georgetown University and serves as a mentor in the school’s Summer Launch Incubator program. The National Museum of Health and Medicine (Silver Spring, MD) acquired Button Helper for its collection in 2023.
