Posted 3:12 am Friday, September 03, 2010
LeTourneau Awarded $1.6 Million Grant
With more than $1 million in grant money bound for LeTourneau University, the school will have funds for more research, student retention programs and facility upgrades.
The National Science Foundation recently awarded three grants totaling $1.6 million to Letourneau. This brings the grant funding total to almost $6.5 million in the last 10 years, according to a university statement.
The first and largest of the most recent grants is for $798,823. This will fund upgrades to a university lab that serves engineering students.
Upgrades will address the lab's electrical wiring and equipment capacity, in addition to making improvements to the lighting, roofing, plumbing and ventilation, among other repairs. The expected date of completion is next fall, according to the statement.
The second grant for almost $500,000 over five years will pay for the development of a coordinated mentoring program for first-year engineering and engineering technology students. It also will fund the creation of a two-course sequence for freshman that will expose them to real-world engineering practices, according to the statement.
Both initiatives are designed to support retention of the first-year engineering and engineering technology students.
The third grant for $300,000 over three years will fund research to further develop a computer model that could impact the prevention, treatment and rehab for ACL injuries. The ACL is the anterior cruciate ligament.
The model could change how medical professionals assess knee stability, according to the statement.
