News Releases 2009

LeTourneau University was featured today in a print story in The Chronicle of Higher Education about the university’s low-cost prosthetic program, LEGS, and a strikingly similar project by two Stanford University graduate students.  Time magazine recently lauded the Stanford team in its “Top 50 Inventions of 2009”  however, the LETU program has been ongoing for the past five years by undergraduate students and, while the Stanford team knew of LETU’s research and failed to cite it, they also failed to tell the national magazine it was not a new invention.

 

LETU was featured yesterday in an online story FoxNews.com titled, “ David vs. Goliath: Colleges Battle Over Prosthetic Knee Invention” by John R. Quain. In that story, Quain describes what he calls an “academic squabble” and quotes LETU biomedical engineering professor Dr. Roger V. Gonzalez, who is the executive director of the LEGS (LeTourneau Empowering Global Solutions) program. “The success of projects can depend on notoriety and being able to secure funds,” Gonzalez said. “People will say, ‘Hey, your knee looks like Stanford’s knee.’”

 

LETU undergraduate engineering students have been providing these low-cost prosthetics to amputees in developing countries including Kenya, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and Senegal since the project started in 2004.

 

The story of the misplaced credit has also appeared in the  Longview News-Journal , and KLTV television news reporter Bob Hallmark ran a story about the similarities of the prosthetic designs.   Both news organizations had previously written and produced stories about the LETU prosthetic. The Economic Times , the largest business publication in India, picked up the story, as has Inside Higher Education  and the San Francisco Chronicle.  KLTV news reporter Lakecia Shockley did a follow up story .

 

The LEGS program has previously been featured in numerous professional journals and presentations, as well as in a Nov. 17, 2006 Chronicle of Higher Education story  and in a July 3, 2008 Dallas Morning News video and a July 6, 2008 Dallas Morning News feature .

 

LeTourneau University integrates learning, living and Christian leadership in a community of integrity, academic quality and technological innovation. It is an interdenominational university offering academic majors in the aeronautical sciences, business, education, engineering, the humanities and sciences. LeTourneau University also offers business degrees, including a Master’s of Business Administration degree, and teacher certification programs online and at five education centers in Austin, Bedford, Dallas, Houston and Tyler.

 

Claiming every workplace in every nation as its mission field, LeTourneau University graduates are professionals of ingenuity and Christ-like character who see life's work as a holy calling with eternal impact.