Press Release
Argus Nanosensors Inside Plants by Harpreet Singh Sareen Is Granted the Silver A' Design Award in Cybernetics, Prosthesis and Implant Design
Harpreet Singh Sareen honored for cybernetics, prosthesis and implant design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ Argus Nanosensors Inside Plants by Harpreet Singh Sareen, designed for Parsons School of Design, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Cybernetics, Prosthesis and Implant Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
More About Argus Nanosensors Inside Plants
Argus is a water quality monitoring system based on a living plant. Nanosensors are injected into the leaves, where they remain within the intercellular space. The sensors produce a visible glow of a specific light wavelength. When lead from the surrounding water reaches the leaves, the glow is reduced, indicating that the water contains impurities. The plant samples water continuously and needs no electricity. A result appears within fifteen minutes to two hours, which is faster than laboratory testing.
About Harpreet Singh Sareen
Harpreet Sareen is a scientist, artist and educator based in New York. His work is situated at the intersection of Material Science, Biology and Electronics and draws on the complementary abilities of the biological and artificial worlds. Harpreet terms this as 'Convergent Design' to create hybrid substrates and bionic materials that lend themselves for future ecological machinery, sensing systems and interaction design. Harpreet is an Assistant Professor of Interaction and Media Design at Parsons School of Design, New York.
Award Record
This recognition makes Harpreet Singh Sareen a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Cybernetics, Prosthesis and Implant Design Award
The A' Cybernetics Design Award is an international competition recognizing good design in cybernetics industry by leading designers and brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to cybernetics designers, prosthesis designers, implant designers and bio-engineers from all countries. Entries typically include bionic limbs, neural implants, cochlear implants, retinal prosthetics, robotic prosthetics and artificial organs. Awarded cybernetics designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/cybernetics
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/106623
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/106623
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!106623
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/279567
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://is.gd/EOWx7h
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Argus Nanosensors Inside Plants
- Function
- Nanosensors Inside Plants
- Category
- Cybernetics, Prosthesis and Implant Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Health, Accessibility and Innovation
- Colors
- Silver, Gray, Olive and Dark Olive Green
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Parsons School of Design
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Harpreet Singh Sareen
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2020 - 2021
- Design ID
- #106623
Credits
- Team
- Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes
- Image Credits
- Images: Harpreet Sareen CC 4.0 Motion graphics: Jiefu Zheng
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Argus is a living plant that continuously monitors water for heavy metal impurities, with nanosensors inside its leaves. These sensors, of the order 2nm, are injected inside the leaves and stay within the intercellular space. A living plant continuously samples water in the environment and any impurities that come along with it. Such method of detecting heavy metal toxicity is real time, showing a visible output within 15mins to 2 hours, in contrast to current lab methods.
- Inspiration
- This project is motivated by Flint water crisis, New Jersey school water problems, Austin Mar 2019 water advisory and many more. Current trend shows that by the time impurities are usually found in residential or agricultural, it is too late and has previously proven to be fatal. This is because continuous, cheap or off the shelf monitoring methods along river beds do not exist today. Argus on the other hand, provides an electricity free fully continuous water monitoring platform.
- Research
- Industrial waste management has lead to depletion of water quality in rivers in many regions. Current processes of monitoring the water quality are not realtime. Our traditional sensors have been centered around synthetic and completely artificial techniques. We propose new nanosensors providing auxiliary sensing in conjunction with the natural system of a plant. These nanosensors provide an optical readout of lead in water by relying on a plants natural function near riverbeds.
- Challenge
- The following challenges had to be overcome to create world's first electricity free water monitoring platform. No current real time off the shelf sensors exist for Lead toxicity monitoring. Sample testing takes approximately 1 to 2 weeks. The chemical sensors inside plants also needed a digital connection with the digital world. This sensor scheme did not have to use electricity, since it relies on a plant acting like a motor. Such process is then able to sample water 24 hours a day.
- Realization and Technology
- Argus is a plant with DNA nanosensors inside it that detects Lead (Pb2 Heavy Metal). This novel method allows living plants to provide an optical readout of Lead in water. First, a DNAZyme is used as sensor assay inside leaves, double stranded DNA that breaks into single stranded on contact with Pb2 and binds to single walled carbon nanotubes. Following introduction of Pb2 ions, the fluorescence output is quenched and this reduction is proportional to the Lead(II) concentration.
- Operation and Interaction
- Argus has nanonsensors injected inside the leaves of a living plant. A plant is like a natural motor in the environment operating twenty four hours without electricity. It continuously samples water and with that any impurities as well. Our nanosensors normally produce a visible glow of a specific light wavelength on the plant. When lead impurities from the environment come in contact with the nanosensors, this glow disappears to indicate that there are impurities in the environment.
- Project Duration and Location
- This project was stated in 2017 and finished in 2019. It has been exhibited around the world such as Science Gallery Bangalore, Future of Everything WSJ Festival in NYC.
- Specifications
- 457mm x 821mm x 304mm This includes height of the plant and the imaging setup to read from inside a plant
- Keywords
- nanosensors, carbon nanotubes, living plants, DNA, water monitoring
