Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge

Penn State grad student wins Dow Sustainability prize for drought technology

Growing up in Iran — a country that is suffering from a serious drought — Sayed Amin Afzal has spent the past 11 years working on a project to solve this problem.

“My motivation was that the irrigation in my country [Iran] is a problem because water is very important because of a long-term drought,” Afzal said.

At the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Awards (SISCA), Afzal took home the grand prize with his project called: “Leafy: Leaf water content sensor for optimizing irrigation water consumption.” He competed against four other teams of graduate students from Penn State.

SISCA gives its awards based on the potential to solve world problems based on the current year’s goals, interdisciplinary of work and innovative thinking, according to the Dow website.

Afzal’s project attaches to a leaf and determines the best time to irrigate based on the leaf’s water content. This idea was created by Afzal, who is a doctoral student in plant science.

In Iran, the largest river in the central plateau was called the Zayandeh-Roud. Because of seasonal droughts, the plateau has recently gone dry.

Droughts like this are a global problem. However, the United States is becoming more aware thanks to a drought in California that is currently restricting families from using running water, showering and flushing the toilet.

“I think it’s a shame that the world has come to a point where there isn’t enough water to go around,” Rachel Salata (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said.

More serious things also happen when droughts strike, such as farmers losing their crop, which causes people to have to pay more for their food.

“Droughts often cause things like the water bills to increase because the water companies have to charge more for less water. They are a serious problem because they affect all of our livelihoods,” Michaella Caruso (freshman-engineering) said.

Because of this problem, Afzal decided to use the sensors in order to maximize water efficiency.

His project is quickly grabbing people’s interest. Just in the past year, he has won two grand prizes and has one second place finish in competitions that measure his project.

At the SISCA, the judging panel discussed their interest in Afzal’s project because of its agricultural and economic benefits. They awarded him $10,000 for his work.

“We are working to make this a business because it has very reliable results and the market has good interest in it,” Afzal said.

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• Climate Change & Sustainability Services
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