WASHINGTON DC, September 22, 2021 — The Sentinel, a Conservation X Labs technology, has been honored in Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design Awards in the impact category.
The 10th anniversary of the awards, which can be found in the October 2021 issue of Fast Company, recognize people, teams, and companies that transform businesses, organizations, and society through design. One of the most sought-after design awards in the industry, Innovation by Design is the only competition to honor creative work at the intersection of design, business, and innovation, recognizing the people, companies, and trends that have steadily advanced design to the forefront of the business conversation.
The Sentinel is Conservation X Labs’ new artificial intelligence tool that addresses emerging extinction threats. It retrofits existing devices, such as trail cameras and acoustic recorders, to enhance how efficiently conservationists can act on important events.
The device instantly runs machine learning models on data as it is captured and sends notifications to users in real-time. This allows users to know if something critical, like the presence of a poacher or endangered species, is detected so they can take immediate action.
“The Sentinel democratizes creating, running, and deploying machine learning models by providing leverage to conservationists everywhere” said Alex Dehgan, Co-Founder and CEO of Conservation X Labs. “The Sentinel will fundamentally change how we monitor and protect the environment – from catching poachers before they can get away, monitoring endangered species in real time, and detecting new diseases before it's too late.”
Leveraging advances in artificial intelligence through tools like the Sentinel can profoundly increase the scale and efficiency of conservation efforts to better understand and respond to environmental challenges and will allow us to better protect animals around the world.
The Sentinel has been selected for use in a variety of unique projects around the world capturing wide-ranging information, including identifying rare jaguars in Costa Rica, informing wildlife crime officers of suspicious behavior in South Africa, and monitoring gorilla behavior in the Congo. It was a grand prize winner at the 2021 ASME ISHOW, an international accelerator for hardware-led social innovations.
“Design is not just a beauty contest,” said Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “It’s something that can change the world and create solutions in a time when we face pressing global issues such as systemic racism, climate change, and a global pandemic. Many of these entries showcase these challenges while providing hope for the future through their steadfast commitment to elevate design.”
Honorees for the 2021 awards were selected in several categories. The judges include renowned designers from a variety of disciplines, business leaders from some of the most innovative companies in the world, and Fast Company’s own writers and editors. Entries are judged on the key ingredients of innovation: functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact, and business impact.
Winners, finalists, and honorable mentions are featured online and in the October issue of Fast Company magazine, on newsstands September 28, 2021.
To see the complete list, go to: https://www.fastcompany.com/innovation-by-design/2021
