Combining both aspects of my life as a Christian and future engineer confuses and frustrates me. I've been informed that to be a Christian I must dismiss evolution as an explanation for the creation of life, hold that the Bible is the completely accurate Word of God, and believe creationism is the way the world was formed. Being an engineer, I follow scientific facts to make analyses. I constantly battle spiritual warfare. I want to love God and the gifts He has given me, but do I dishonor Him through my doubts I create from scientific data. Last year, I began my journey with God. It may be my curse or blessing that I make decisions and beliefs on factual evidence, which is the opposite of blind faith of Christians. I am attending Anderson University, a Word of God University, for a dual major of Civil and Humanitarian Engineering. I loved this university for many reasons including exploring and growing in my faith, which the professors incorporate into their classrooms even in STEM courses. I hope to gain the information I need to give my full faithfulness towards God. I may be wrong in my thought process of how the world started but I am putting myself in a community that will guide me. So, if humans can make Artificial Intelligence that can evolve to make the most efficient versions of themselves, what is the difference to say that God made Adam and Eve in his image; and ever evolving intelligence. Humanity could have started as monkeys but God had his plan for the people we’d become today and into the future. Could he have made us evolving creatures to last the passing and changing of the times? And to address even the possibility of God existing, Sheldon Cooper from the show Young Sheldon sums up everything I feel, “Did you know that if gravity were slightly more powerful, the universe would collapse into a ball? It’s just that gravity is precisely as strong as it needs to be, and if the ratio of the electromagnetic force to the strong force wasn’t 1%, life wouldn’t exist. What are the odds that would happen all by itself? The precision of the universe at least makes it logical to conclude there’s a creator.” I understand and have read passages of the Bible reminding Christians, God is about blind faith. I know this will take time for me to personally reach this point, but I am putting in the effort and I know I have a community helping guide me. When I began my journey with Christ, I was brought back to one of the first sermons I can remember, Luke 3:11, “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” During the time with the children, my pastor explained to us this verse was about generosity and that we’ve been given many gifts from God. This included material items such as our coats but also intangible gifts such as friendship and kindness that we could also share. I kept the message of glorifying God and His gifts in mind when I chose Humanitarian Engineering. In this field, I will create water systems, design shelters, write grants, and many other tasks to help impoverished communities. While I and humanity may never truly know how the world began, I know the world will keep evolving and I will evolve in my faith where I will honor Christ through my work and my life.

The most effective approach to improve the world is through the development of technology that addresses worsening societal issues and produces new, innovative benefits for society. Poverty is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity, and renewable resources are among the fastest growing industries in our world today. There is a technology, called hydrothermal oxidation, that can perform both of these functions. This technology applies high pressure and temperature to sewage, a substance that is persistently ruining the environment, to convert it into renewable energy, clean water, and sellable by-products. This auto-thermal, odorless system breaks the bonds in the waste water so that it can combine with oxygen to create new unreactive molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. This technology can be used in a low income neighborhood to make a completely self-sufficient community. Sewage no longer needs to be handled as it is used in the system and its products of water and electricity fulfill the other utilities. It has the ability to produce up to 50 megawatts daily which according to ecowatch’s data can supply about 8200 homes. The water and electricity produced in this system can be reused in the community or sold for profit. Carbon dioxide can be sold to pop manufacturers and nitrogen can be used and sold for fertilizer. Not only does it help communities and is another clean source of electricity, it also helps the environment as it keeps this sewage out of our rivers and landfills. One set of this technology can process 50 tons of sewage. It is also more versatile than normal sewage processors since it can process wastewater that is too dilute to incinerate or too concentrated or toxic for biological treatment. The process is an on-site treatment so it also reduces the use of transportation which reduces the amount of greenhouse gasses released. Given how useful hydrothermal oxidation is in so many aspects of our life, it is a remarkable technological advancement. I was actually inspired to study humanitarian engineering because of this technology, which allows me to assist underprivileged people all around the world. Despite the fact that this technology has existed for a couple decades, no one has used it to aid the underprivileged or to consider the global advantages it could offer. I'm motivated to use my career in STEM to create and use new technology, like hydrothermal oxidation, to aid the underprivileged.