by Benjamin Konuch, Student Public Relations Writer
Engineering is transforming lives beyond the lab, becoming a vital force in nonprofit and humanitarian work. At Cedarville University, students not only master technical skills but also learn how to use them for service and ministry.
Last summer, a team of Cedarville engineering students traveled to Zimbabwe, applying their expertise to a two-year partnership aimed at improving water filtration to bring clean water and hope to the Karanda Mission Hospital.
This hospital provides health care, childcare and education to remote regions and has been a longtime partner with Cedarville University. Despite the hospital’s success in serving the needs of the regions, the unavoidable struggle for clean water in a nation with limited purification systems severely hinders the capabilities of medical treatment, sterilization and patient care.
When Ken Atkinson, a former missionary and now a member of Cedarville’s engineering department, approached his colleagues with a request to streamline Karanda’s small water purification plant to become self-sustaining. That appeal launched a joint opportunity for education and service.
Dr. Stephen Ayers, head of civil engineering at Cedarville, has led the student-run project since its inception. After visiting the hospital in 2022, Ayers assessed its river-based water purification system, the region’s technical limitations and access to electricity and specialized components. The goal was to improve filtration efficiency to remove large particles before treatment. To help Karanda become self-sustaining, Ayers determined the parameters for the project had to rely only on locally available materials.
“Our goal wasn’t to develop a solution requiring specialized parts and methods, but to create a system that can be locally sourced and fully sustainable without foreign aid,” said Ayers.
The first step of the project came in 2022-23, when a senior design team researched numerous filtration options and decided on a bank of 10 smaller filters instead of a single large one. This would increase efficiency and reduce downtime. With eight filters in use at any given time, two could serve as backups preventing interruptions when regular cleaning or irregular maintenance was needed. Previously Karanda had to go without water for an entire day during filter cleaning, sometimes even longer if repairs were required.
By the end of the 2022-23 school year, the team identified the most cost-effective and locally available solution for the tanks: UN-standard 50-gallon drums, which can be sourced from Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. The 2023-24 senior design team then worked to prove that an effective filtration system could be built using the drums, PVC piping and gravity for water transport, as stable electricity is a luxury not always available in Karanda.
“Each filter unit can process 21,000 gallons of water in a 72-hour cycle before it needs cleaning, but we had to test that,” said Ayers. “So, in the lab, we created three filters and ran water through a contamination process mimicking Karanda’s conditions. It was self-sustaining — and it worked.”
In summer 2024, Ayers and students travelled to the Karanda Mission Hospital to train local technicians how to build and install the system. Their two years of hard work were rewarded with a seamless installation and a new modular system allowing the hospital to expand capacity as needed. As Ayers had hoped, the entire system was constructed using elements that were locally accessible, ensuring it could be operated, maintained and expanded without any need for foreign materials or labor.
“This modular system isn’t just for Karanda — it can be adapted for communities worldwide,” said Ayers. “If it works for Karanda and they start building and distributing this system across Zimbabwe, impact could be enormous. We have so much work we can do to improve the system even more.”
While the filtration problem has been addressed, Cedarville’s School of Engineering plans to continue working with Karanda Mission Hospital for years to come to develop locally sustainable solutions across multiple stages of the water purification process. This year’s senior design team is researching safer, more efficient chemical treatment methods while Ayers evaluates the new filtration system for potential improvements.
This continued partnership perfectly exemplifies the value of engineering to the Christian world for Ayers; engineering is not just about technical skills but about using those skills to serve communities and share the love and testimony of Jesus Christ.
“We have so many students who want to make a difference for God’s Kingdom, but they may not be scholars or preachers,” said Ayers. “Engineering is opening doors that even traditional missionaries can’t. God created us with these skills, and we have real opportunities to use them for His glory.”
This project with the Karanda Mission Hospital — and numerous more senior design projects like it at Cedarville —continue to forge opportunities that demonstrate how students can use their engineering skills for an impact through faith and service. These experiences not only influence the next generation of engineers but the next generations of missionaries, doctors and nonprofit workers who are impacted through the indispensable work of engineering as a mission.
Cedarville University, an evangelical Christian institution in southwest Ohio, offers undergraduate and graduate programs across arts, sciences, and professional fields. With 6,384 students, it ranks among Ohio's largest private universities and is recognized by the Wall Street Journal as being among the nation’s top three evangelical universities. Cedarville is also known for its vibrant Christian community, challenging academics, and high graduation and retention rates. Learn more at cedarville.edu.