Boyd was interested, so a few weeks later Cohen and the design team brought their lift system prototype to Floyd and received invaluable feedback about concerns the students hadn’t considered, like size restrictions in homes or at an accident site. Then Boyd put the student team in touch with a network of other EMS organizations in Virginia, and the team began to design in collaboration with user feedback.

For Cohen, the experience was a reminder that in the end, the work of an engineer is to make people’s lives better and safer.

“Most engineering schools will teach you that the first step is determining engineering requirements,” he said. “That’s kind of right, but I also think it’s extremely wrong. The first step is talking with people.”

And Cohen is carrying those lessons into his current research in bioinspired robotics.

“Right now we have robots that work very well in confined environments — warehouses, factory lines. What we don’t have is robots that work well in the field. What I do is look at how soft animals inspire better robots. For example, animals are really good at grasping things; robots are not.”

Cohen said that, by mimicking the soft but strong aspects of animal muscles, robotics might be able to work better in real-life situations. “Things like medical robots working right beside you. Maybe it’s helping in a hospital to lift a patient.”

“In 10 years I would love to be the head of my own robotics company,” Cohen said. “I would love to start something — and this is so cliche at this point — that does make a difference.”

This story is part of the To Serve Better series, exploring connections between Harvard and neighborhoods across the United States.