First-time founder, full-time faculty, single mom | Megan Cales pushes ahead with autism-support wearable
With community backing and a new engineering team, the Brooks Band is entering its next phase of development.
About six months ago, we sat down with Megan Cales, a faculty member at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), to learn about her idea for a supportive wearable device designed to help individuals on the autism spectrum.
Cales called her company Sensory Bridges, and its main product under development is the Brooks Band.
What problem does the Brooks Band solve?
For people on the autism spectrum, certain situations can be overstimulating, especially social settings with large crowds and constant movement.
Responses vary from person to person, but a common reaction among individuals on the spectrum is an increase in vocal volume. Until now, there has been no technology available to support individuals in these situations.
In May 2025, Cales unveiled her first prototype for the “Brooks Band” and began working with an engineer to design a smaller, more user-friendly model.
Today, through a partnership with UTC, she is building a second prototype with a team of electrical engineers.
Learning that pivots are part of the process
We met with the founder on Friday to get an update on the Brooks Band, business momentum, and the hurdles she is facing.
“For the hardware part of this, the engineers at UTC are making it a two-piece device, so there will be a microphone and a sensor, which can be put on a band or worn somewhere else,” she said.
Through customer discovery, Cales learned that therapists, teachers, and parents want the wearable to read heart rate and temperature, in addition to voice volume, to help predict meltdowns and provide valuable health insights.
“I also learned that my value monetarily will be speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, parents, and teachers, where we can build a dashboard to provide health insights, track improvements, and more,” she said.
Adding a software component to the Brooks Band is a significant expansion of the original idea. And, between building Brooks Band 2.0 and developing the software, progress is taking longer than Cales initially expected.
“I have come to realize that my quickest go-to-market strategy could be leveraging some sort of partnership or license agreement with a programmable wearable already on the market,” she said.
Other devices with similar functions exist, but they target different populations, track different information, and do not include specialized software.
Whether she partners with an existing company or waits for her own product to be complete, Cales has learned that getting prototypes into users’ hands is not an overnight journey.
Still, she remains motivated.
“It may not look exactly like what I originally thought it was going to look like, but I am okay with that,” she said. “My mindset at the beginning was to pave my own path. But when you are actually going through it, you realize there is a path that has already been paved. It makes sense to partner, pivot, and work together.”
Support in the early stages has been paramount
Cales said Sensory Bridges and the Brooks Band would not be where they are today without the community’s “overwhelming support.”
“From Chattanooga to Knoxville and Nashville, it seems like everyone is super excited, supportive, and wanting to be a part of it,” she said.
That support keeps her energized.
Cales is a single mom to her six-year-old son. She said balancing all her commitments has been a challenge in itself. She is a full-time mom, a full-time coordinator of career engagement at the UTC Rollins College of Business, and a full-time founder of a growing wearable tech company.
Since launching her company, she has bootstrapped the Brooks Band development, with additional help from microgrants and pitch competition winnings.
“I am eager for help, support, knowledge, and advice. Everyone just wants to give it. So I feel like so many people already feel part of the project,” she said.
For more updates on the Brooks Band, visit the Sensory Bridges website.
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