On science and faith | News, Sports, Jobs
Rosalind Picard is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies, regularly ranked a single of the best two or 3 universities in the globe and the quantity-a single university in her field.
Early in her academic profession, she had it figured out: Science is the clear winner in the search for truth. She was proud to get in touch with herself a staunch atheist who couldn’t comprehend why everyone would think in God. Most folks just do not comprehend science, she believed to herself.
“What I saw of religion was quite offensive,” she stated. “I believed it was folks who had been emotionally crippled, or didn’t feel. Possibly they just weren’t really intelligent. Possibly they believed some myth they had been taught and never ever believed to query it.”
When challenged with, “Have you ever study the Bible?” she responded that she hadn’t, due to the fact she had just constantly believed the Bible was incorrect.
She stated, “It occurred to me that that was a rather inconsistent intellectual position.”
So, she did get a Bible which she study and reread more than the course of various years.
“I found that there was extraordinary wisdom in there. And I, who believed religious folks had been so stupid, had to acknowledge that there was a lot for me to find out.”
The message landed.
Soon after praying for the 1st time and deciding to grow to be a follower of Jesus, she stated, “My globe changed drastically, as if a flat, black-and-white existence all of a sudden turned complete-colour and 3-dimensional. But I lost nothing at all of my urge to seek new understanding. In truth, I felt emboldened to ask even tougher concerns about how the globe performs. I felt joy and freedom — but also a heightened sense of duty and challenge.”
That duty pushed her to pursue science in a effective way. Because then, Picard has authored or coauthored more than 350 scientific articles and chapters spanning computer system vision, pattern recognition, machine understanding, human-computer system interaction, and wearable sensors.
She wrote the book “Affective Computing,” which became instrumental in beginning a new scientific field. Now, that field has its personal journal, international conference, and experienced society. Picard helped launch the field of wearable computing.
She has many patents for inventions that have applications in autism, epilepsy, depression, post-traumatic strain disorder, sleep, strain, dementia, autonomic nervous method problems, human and machine understanding, well being behavior adjust, marketplace study, consumer service, and human-computer system interaction. Thousands of study teams worldwide use these goods and solutions.
CNN named Rosalind Picard a single of seven “Tech Superheroes to Watch.” She has been honored with dozens of international awards. Because there is no Nobel Prize in computing, she was awarded the Lombardy Prize in 2022, along with its $1 million award, which she donated to epilepsy and sudden infant death syndrome study.
Serving on several international and national science and engineering plan committees, editorial boards, and critique panels, she is also a member of the Board of Advisors for Scientific American.
Picard interacts routinely with sector and has consulted for firms such as Apple, AT&T, BT, HP, iRobot, Merck, Motorola, and Samsung.
1 of her inventions is now obtainable as a smartwatch that can warn of epileptic seizures prior to they take place. It sends an alert to summon assistance and is actively saving lives right now. She discusses that in a TEDx speak that has been viewed millions of instances.
She has began two prosperous firms.
She has stated that her intellectual doubts (about God and Christianity) had been ironically primarily based on myths that she picked up from society. She was told that religion is not primarily based on something substantial.
She stated, “What I was locating was that the Bible was primarily based on a lot of strong historical events and a lot of extremely brilliant and sensible instruction and understanding and practical experience that I undoubtedly couldn’t dismiss as non-intellectual or as non-relevant to my life.”
Appropriately, she compares her realization to engineering:
“Have you ever attempted to assemble anything mechanical, and it only type of performs? Possibly the wheels spin, but not smoothly. Then you understand you had been missing a piece. When you ultimately place it collectively properly, it performs beautifully. This is how it felt when I handed my life more than to God: I believed it had worked fine prior to, but right after it was ‘fixed,’ it worked exponentially far better.
“That’s not to say nothing at all negative ever occurred to me — far from it. But, in all items, excellent and negative, I could count on God’s guidance, comfort, and protection.
“I as soon as believed I was as well clever to think in God. Now I know I was an arrogant fool who snubbed the greatest Thoughts in the cosmos — the Author of all science, mathematics, art, and every little thing else there is to know.
“Today, I stroll humbly, obtaining received the most undeserved grace. I stroll with joy, alongside the most awesome Companion everyone could ask for, filled with want to maintain understanding and exploring.”
Phil Cook is a teacher, performs in northern Michigan with Biglife, an international disciple-producing ministry, and serves on the Board of Directors for Sunrise Mission in Alpena.
Today’s breaking news and far more in your inbox
