Owner of more than 20 technology patents to discuss aspects of joy, engineering – and pickleball
BRISTOL, Tenn., Nov. 3, 2022 — As part of its 2022-23 speaker series, “Hunger and Gladness,” King University’s Institute for Faith & Culture (IFC) is welcoming Lee Martin, Ph.D., professor of practice emeritus at the University of Tennessee (UT) College of Engineering, and president of the Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee.
A development engineer and technological innovator who worked with Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL), Martin is the owner of 22 patents related to telepresence, remote imaging, virtual reality navigation, and battery charge sensing. He is the founder of the minor in Engineering Entrepreneurship at UT, where he served as the program’s director for more than a decade until he retired from the school in December 2020.
He is also the author of the 2007 book “Techonomics,” which anticipated the virtual age in which we are now immersed, and was also instrumental in starting Global Media Outreach, an online ministry that has presented the Christian gospel more than 2 billion times in more than 25 languages.
An avid pickleball enthusiast and national champion, Martin has recently worked to bring the game indoors to the new Pavilion of Pickleball in West Knoxville, where the organization now boasts more than 800 members.
Martin will offer two presentations on Monday, Nov. 14. At 9:15 a.m. he will present “I Dare You – A Metric to Enhance Your Joy in the Journey,” at Memorial Chapel on King’s main campus in Bristol, Tennessee. At 7 p.m., he will present “Pickleball: The Future King of Recreational Sport,” in the Board Room of the Student Center Complex at King. Both presentations are free and open to the public.
“I am addicted to pickleball,” Martin said. “This presentation will explore why it’s the fastest growing sport in the USA and why it is destined to be a part of your future if you enjoy any kind of hand/eye coordination sports.”
Martin is the 2022 National 65 and over, 4.0 level Senior Olympics men’s pickleball doubles champion. He holds mechanical engineering degrees from the University of Tennessee (BSME, Ph.D.) and Purdue University (MSME).
“Lee Martin has such a wide range of expertise that it’s hard to place boundaries on his realm of knowledge or constrain his enthusiasm,” said Martin Dotterweich, Ph.D., director of the IFC. “Conversations with him are an adventure, and we look forward to welcoming the community to this shared time with him.”
More information on the current IFC season is available at www.king.edu/faithandculture.