Big Ten Network

There are 25 million people world-wide who are missing one or more of their limbs. Of that group, approximately 80 percent live in developing countries without access to affordable and adequate rehabilitation. At age 19, University of Illinois sophomore Jonathan Naber recruited six fellow mechanical science and engineering students to form Illinois Prosthetics Technologies (IPT), a non-profit organization dedicated to revolutionizing affordable prosthetics. Using recycled materials, the IPT team developed an efficient, adjustable and affordable prosthetic arm, called the open socket. For his work with IPT, Naber was honored with numerous awards, including the Lemelson-MIT Prize, dubbed the “Oscar for Inventors,” for outstanding innovation and invention. This segment was featured on the Big Ten Network show "Impact the World" on February 6th, 2012.

Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) is dedicated to developing and deploying animated educational materials that can be used to improve the lives of people in developing nations. Animation is used as a learning tool with a voice track recorded in any language, and then delivered via the Internet and viewed on a computer, cell phone, or tablet.

Illinois is a global leader in research into flexible and transient electronics designed to help researchers monitor people and the environment more closely. Learn how Illinois engineering professor John Rogers and his team are working with flexible patches attached to skin to help monitor heartbeat, as well as muscle and brain activity.

This new documentary provides the backstory to a name that many know from the basketball court and the boardroom. Growing up in southern Illinois in the 1940s and '50s, Mannie Jackson dreamed of being more than a star athlete, he wanted to be a star in business. He was not willing to accept the limitations placed on him by a society steeped in prejudice. Jackson rose from humble beginnings in a rain-soaked boxcar to become the first African-American captain of the University of Illinois basketball team, a member of the Harlem Globetrotters and later Chairman of the Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame. He left basketball to break through the color barrier of the business world. As a senior executive at Honeywell, he was one of the first African-Americans to serve on multiple Fortune 500 boards of directors. When he purchased the Harlem Globetrotters in 1992, he rescued them from bankruptcy and insured their role in African-American history would not be forgotten.

Rajmohan Gandhi is the biographer and grandson of the Mahatma Gandhi. He is also a research professor at the University of Illinois Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. He continues the work of his grandfather, trying to bring the world together through understanding and cooperation. Since September 11, 2001, he has addressed the issues between the West and the world of Islam. We look at this remarkable man, who is internationally recognized not just for his name, but for his work.

Thomas K. Cureton Jr., who taught at the University of Illinois from 1941 to 1969, is known as the father of physical fitness. He lectured around the world and wrote more than 50 books encouraging people to lead a healthier life. Professor Cureton served on the U.S. President's Council on Physical Fitness during five administrations. He was also a champion swimmer who once held 14 world records. Thanks to Cureton, the study of physical fitness is now an accepted science.

Nathan Gunn is a Grammy-winning operatic baritone. Between performances at the world’s greatest opera venues, Gunn and his equally gifted wife/accompanist, Julie Gunn, work as tenured professors of music at the University of Illinois. Nathan Gunn is a different sort of opera star, known for putting sex-appeal into the opera world. In 2008, People magazine listed Nathan as “One of the Sexiest Men Alive.” Catching a few moments with Nathan gives a glimpse into a very normal family man who also happens to live in a world few of us will ever experience.

A documentary about the Overlooked Film Festival and Ebertfest, an annual event showcasing films selected by renowned film critic, Roger Ebert, an Illinois alumnus, at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign. The video features commentary by Roger's wife, Chaz Ebert, Chancellor Richard Herman, Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, also an Illinois alumnus.

Electrical Engineering Professor Stephen Levinson and his team of graduate students are developing an artificially intelligent robot named the ICUB. ICUB is the size of a small child and is designed to learn through experience. The main focus of Levinson's team is to develop innovative cortical modeling within the ICUB. Working along with six other teams around the world, Levinson's group is the only one in the western hemisphere.