Natalie Jeremijenko is the ass-kickingest technologist out there. Her work combines art, design, technology, and activism, and she makes the personal political, turning her creations into megaphones for enlightenment and change. (She was also in the last Whitney Biennial.) One of her most popular works, Feral Robotic Dogs, saw her working with Yale Engineering students to rip out the brains of toy robotic dogs (the kind you find at toy stores) and replace them with circuitry that sniffs out local pollutants. Armed with laptops (the robots wirelessly report back), she took out packs of the dogs to various community sites and turned them loose. Oh: and she'd invite local media and politicians to witness the event...and the results.

At next week's Design 2.0 Panel Discussion event, Natalie will show a bunch of these works and talk about how we need to shift from technology-as-convenience to technology-as-public-action. And when we think about designers helping to set the agenda in addition (or opposed to) filling the client brief, her mantra should be stamped on our foreheads: "No sustainability without sustained accountability."

Don't have a ticket yet? Read more about the event and register right here.