Louisiana Tech University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Ruston, Louisiana, U.S. It offers a broad range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs, emphasizing engineering, science, technology, and business and awarding doctorates in business, philosophy, and engineering. It operates the Trenchless Technology Center and the Mobile Automated Learning Laboratory, as well as research institutes in micromanufacturing, rehabilitation science and biomedical engineering, and manufacturing systems engineering. The university operates international programs in Rome and San Luis PotosÃ, Mexico. Total enrollment in the university exceeds 10,000.
Louisiana Tech University was founded in 1894 as the Industrial Institute and College of Louisiana and first admitted students the following year. From 1921 to 1970, the school was known as Louisiana Polytechnic Institute. In 1965 it began teaching military personnel at Barksdale Air Force Base near Bossier City.