SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSTU) — Students at the University of Utah have created a prosthetic so promising that the world's largest prosthetic company will partner with them to get it into the market.
Called the "Utah Bionic Leg" by students at the University of Utah, it's considered a huge achievement.
Alec McMorris has been using the prosthetic. He lost his leg nine years ago in an accident.
“When the opportunity came up that they needed a study subject to come and work with them here,” he said. “I jumped right on it.”
According to McMorris, having the new prosthetic is worlds apart compared to the prosthetic he normally wears every day.
"It has a computer chip in it, has a battery, everything else, but it's still passive. You just watch me go upstairs, step over step,” McMorris said. “I can't do that on my everyday leg. It's a really fun device to go push and see what my limits are again.”
“Ten years ago, we're thinking that this may or may not be possible. We didn't know. And now here we are," said Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Tommazo Lenzi. "So this is a new lab that was just open and was made possible by a donation received from the owner and chairman of Otto Bock."
While there's much left to be done to perfect the new prosthetic, Lenzi believes they can really make a difference for those in need when it's finished.
“This is a device that can really give them some normalcy back," he said.
This story was originally reported by Spencer Joseph on fox13now.com.
