Anthony Gonzales was a college rugby player at Arizona State, and used his experiences to inspire FitGuard, which is a mouthguard that helps diagnose concussions. Once, Anthony received a concussion while playing rugby and couldn’t recall where he was or what position he was playing. He almost re-entered the game, and was held back by one of his teammates who was a pre-med student. If he had re-entered the game, he could have sustained permanent brain damage. This incident inspired him to create a device with his FitGuard is geared toward middle and high school athletes, but has hopes of being involved in college and professional sports as well.

Built in to the FitGuard are an accelerometer and a gyroscope that measure impact and send the information over Bluetooth to a smartphone with the FitGuard app. Additionally, a luminescent portion of the mouthguard changes from green to blue or red, depending on the severity of the impact that it registers. After a serious hit, a parent or coach with the app can look at the data and see if the player should go to the hospital or if they are OK to go back into the game. Coaches can also look at the data over time and analyze which drills have the highest potential for concussions and adjust their practice schedule accordingly.