Innovation

Notus Labs focuses on athlete safety and performance through advanced wearable technology. Founded by Case Western Reserve University students, the company identified a major gap in the market. Most existing wearables track only a single metric, such as heart rate, leaving critical gaps in injury prevention. To address this, Notus Labs developed a compact, multi-sensor wearable device capable of monitoring core temperature, heart rate, and exertion levels in real-time. This technology provides coaches, trainers, and medical professionals with immediate, data-driven insights to prevent heat stroke, overexertion, and injuries that could sideline athletes or lead to life-threatening conditions.

The innovation was driven by growing concerns over heat-related illnesses in sports, particularly at the high school and collegiate levels. Heat stroke is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths among athletes, yet traditional monitoring methods often fail to detect warning signs in time. Notus Labs’ wearable tracks an athlete’s physiological state continuously, alerting coaching staff when conditions become unsafe, allowing intervention before an injury occurs.

This innovation directly aligns with UN SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) by reducing preventable sports injuries and deaths. It also contributes to SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure) by advancing wearable sensor technology for real-time health monitoring. Additionally, Notus Labs supports SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) by promoting safer workplace conditions in physically demanding industries such as construction, manufacturing, and military training, expanding its impact beyond athletics.

Inspiration

Before joining CWRU, the co-founder of Notus Labs, Evan Davies, was part of the quantum sensing team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where he got into circuit design. There, he completed a project where he put together a detector, which was later licensed, leading him to open his eyes to the opportunities that this field could present. After joining CWRU, he looked for a professor to sponsor his summer project but accidentally approached the wrong professor, unintentionally finding himself in the wrong lab. However, this mistake led him to an unexpected opportunity–"We did a bunch of work with athletes, and he kind of just thought my project was cool, so he let me hang out. But in the meetings, I ended up getting involved in some of the athlete projects." This situation introduced him to research focused on how to get athletes back on the field faster after an injury without risking re-injury, expanding his focus beyond quantum sensing into technology in sports. During research, the team at the lab discovered a major gap in the field–"Through that, we found that all of the wearables that are out there are pretty deficient." No existing research had been able to integrate multiple data sources accurately, and the market was full of sensors that were only able to measure a single parameter, such as heart rate or speed on the field. Davies realized that without the integration of multiple parameters, valuable insight into athletes' conditions and potential activities were being lost. This realization fueled his drive to integrate multiple sensors into a more comprehensive system, leading him to meet his co-founders and eventually launch Notus Labs together.

Overall impact

Notus Labs has made a significant impact in athletic rehabilitation and injury prevention by providing coaches with better data to optimize workouts and recovery plans. By having its first two sales at the end of last year with University Hospitals (UH) and University School, its technology has been actively used to refine training plans. Coaches at University School have adjusted their practice schedules based on insights from Notus Lab’s technology, recognizing that rest days were often more physically demanding than expected. UH is leveraging the innovation to support athletes in their recovery from injuries. These early successes show how Notus Labs is helping to prevent injuries and improve overall athlete performance.

For the long-term impact of Notus Labs, by providing real-time insights into workload and recovery it has the potential to eliminate preventable heat stroke related deaths among high school athletes, which should never happen in the first place. This technology also has applications beyond sports such as helping to improve workplace safety, reducing insurance costs and workers’ compensation claims by preventing overexertion-related injuries. Additionally, Notus Labs is working on building connections with the military, hoping to secure a partnership with the Air Force in the future. As Notus Labs continues to evolve, its impact has the potential to extend far beyond athletics, reshaping the way injury prevention and recovery are approached across multiple industries.

Business benefit

Because Notus Labs developed a real-time, multi-sensor wearable device for athlete safety, it has already begun making a measurable impact in sports performance and injury prevention. Early funding from the NSF iCORE Program and an Air Force grant allowed the team to refine their technology, conduct extensive customer discovery, and establish initial sales. The company has since secured its first major customers, including University Hospitals and University School, where coaches and trainers are using the device to track athlete health and adjust training programs in real time. Already, teams have reported improved player recovery times and reduced injury risks, demonstrating the practical value of the technology in high-performance settings.

Building on this success, Notus Labs is now looking beyond athletics to broader applications in health and safety. The technology’s ability to monitor physiological responses in real-time has potential uses in workplace safety, military training, and rehabilitation—industries where heat stress, overexertion, and fatigue-related injuries are common. By expanding into these sectors, Notus Labs is not only enhancing worker safety and well-being but also opening new investment and business growth opportunities. As the company continues to refine its product and scale its operations, it is positioned to transform both sports and occupational health, ensuring safer environments for athletes, workers, and military personnel alike.

Social and environmental benefit

The innovation enhances the health of athletes by preventing injuries. The compact design can be worn at all times with minimal interference to the user, allowing athletes to wear it during games and practices to monitor their condition at all times. Since key characteristics such as core temperature and heart rate are measured, the chance of injury vastly decreases as coaches can remove players from the game or practice before something happens. Currently, coaches use it to better monitor players during workouts so the next exercises are properly spaced and there is no unnecessary strain placed on their bodies. It’s also used to ensure athletes receive enough water and are not overheating during warm summer practices so as to reduce heat stroke incidents.

Similarly, the innovation is useful for physical rehabilitation as patients can be monitored in real time for overexertion. The relatively cheap cost for its high quality sensors can reduce expenses for patients and physical therapists. The concept can also be expanded to workplace safety to monitor workers doing physical labor. This could lead to reduced insurance costs and also lower employee injuries. Overall, the device lowers risk of injury by allowing coaches to better understand the condition of their athletes during intense training, improving the well being of the players.

Interview

Evan Davies, CEO, Co-Founder