A Georgia Tech student has been using a prosthetic leg for years. Now he's designing better ones

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Nathan Wallace (right) tests new prosthetic leg designs in Georgia Tech's EPIC lab.

Credit: Georgia Tech

After losing his foot as a child, one Georgia Tech student decided to use his experience to design smarter prosthetics for others.

Nathan Wallace has been wearing a prosthetic leg for the majority of his life. That experience can be exhausting, especially on long treks across a college campus.

But now, he works at Georgia Tech’s Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Control Lab, helping design and test prosthetic legs that learn from their users.

Wallace said the first time he visited the EPIC lab, he was overcome with emotion.

"I almost wanted to cry just seeing how much time and how much energy and the passion that the people have in the lab towards this kind of field," Wallace said.

That experience encouraged him to work towards a future in education, so he can continue his research and help the next generation of engineers.