LEGS - LeTourneau University Empowering Global Solutions

Our History

The LEGS program was started in 2004 by Dr. Roger Gonzalez, a biomedical engineering professor at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas. The program was initially a senior biomedical engineering design project known as LeTourneau Engineering Global Solutions. Dr. Gonzalez’s challenge to his students was to design and build a low cost above-the-knee (AK) prosthetic that was durable, maintenance-free, and could be manufactured in developing countries. According to Dr. Gonzalez, “Our goal was to take advanced, first world technology and reverse engineer the expense out of it; and to produce a low cost prosthetic that would work well in developing nations”.

Over the next year, Dr. Gonzalez worked with his students to develop a low cost, durable prosthetic that was efficient and reliable. In the third world, “peg-legs,” (legs without an articulating knee) that require the amputee to swing the leg from the hip are a standard prosthetic limb. The LEGS team designed a knee that simulated natural movement, bending, rotating during movement, and locking automatically with the application of weight.  This knee could be manufactured for as little as 20USD, using materials that could potentially be acquired in developing nations, and became known as the LEGS M1 knee.  The LEGS team began extensively testing the M1 with local amputees, using sophisticated technology such as gait analysis and also to ensure that the knee met international performance standards, as set forth by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

After a year of extensive research and development, the LEGS team traveled to Kijabe, Kenya, to test its new product at the CURE International Bethany Crippled Children’s Center.  The team fitted several Kenyans with prosthetic legs using the LEGS M1 Knee, and also provided the raw materials for additional legs to be produced locally.

Over the last five years the LEGS program has expanded from Kenya into Sierra Leone Senegal, and Bangladesh, fitting over 100 amputees with knees at an average cost of about 20USD per knee. In that time, the LEGS team students have continued with research and development, continually refining and improving the knee, and returning to the same countries to share technological advances. While the LEGS program continues to grow in size and scope, the LEGS team is still an organization dedicated to offering Global Service Learning for every student at LeTourneau University. The team is also working on advances in prosthetic arm and foot technology, and projects are underway to improve visual literacy and small plot irrigation in developing nations, all aimed at improving the lives of the underprivileged around the world.