Honoring Teaching: Lawrence Bohs
Pratt School professor honored for path-breaking class on engineering devices for the disabled
"Richard Goldberg, KevinCaves and I teach a class called Devices for People with Disabilities, in which students build projects for people in the community. The students clarify the client's need, design a solution, build, and deliver a working device, all in one semester. They relish the
chance to apply their recently developed engineering skills to a real-life problem, while connecting personally with their client and feeling the satisfaction that comes from having a positive impact on someone's life.
"In addition to the project experience, the class explores the field of rehabilitation engineering, emphasizes practice for improvement in communications, and challenges students to consider using their skills for the common good. Taken together, these experiences can help students broaden their view of the world."
Bohs' students have won 15 national awards for their devices from the NISH Workplace Technology Scholarship Competition, the Annual National Student Design Competition sponsored by the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Society of North America, and the Annual National Student Design Competition sponsored by the University of Florida,Gainesville.