FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Reno, Nevada — July 30, 2025 — Connected Future Labs (CFL) has been selected for a $150,000 a2 Collective Pilot Award to develop CogniScore, a continuous, non-invasive cognitive wellness app that enables early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and helps individuals, clinicians, and caregivers monitor disease progression and treatment effectiveness.
With this award, Connected Future Labs will:
Build and pilot CogniScore—an AI model powered by multimodal wearable signals (e.g., physiology, movement, sleep) delivered via a user-friendly app.
Validate feasibility in collaboration with the University of California, Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Work alongside the Johns Hopkins Artificial Intelligence & Technology Collaboratory for Aging Research (JH AITC) within the a2 Collective network.
“Today’s diagnostics are expensive, time-consuming, and often invasive,” said Sean Montgomery, PhD, CEO at Connected Future Labs. “CogniScore aims to make cognitive wellness trackable in everyday life—so interventions can happen sooner and progression can be monitored continuously, not just during an annual office visit.”
ADRD affects over 6.7 million Americans and is projected to double by 2050, with annual economic costs expected to exceed $3.3 trillion per year by 2060. Continuous, low-burden monitoring is essential for earlier intervention to slow disease progression, and CogniScore is designed to deliver exactly that.
The a2 Collective Pilot Award is a competitive, non-dilutive, NIH-funded program that awards teams poised to translate innovation into commercial impact. Connected Future Labs brings a proven record of creating products using biometric sensing and applied AI, including the EmotiBit biometric sensing platform. CFL’s team has delivered solutions spanning automotive wellness, neural interface wristbands, biometrics-enabled VR, and attention-assistive technology to the classroom. Connected Future Labs is incredibly grateful to our team whose hard work and commitment to excellence have made this achievement possible.
About Connected Future Labs
Connected Future Labs is an agile R&D engineering firm transforming signals into solutions—from mixed-signal sensor design and miniaturized hardware to machine-learning algorithms and human-centered apps. Championing open science and user-owned data, CFL created EmotiBit, a research-grade, open-source biometric sensor that’s used worldwide. CFL also regularly engages in consulting activities for clients ranging from startups to Fortune500 companies.
About the a2 Collective
The a2 Collective represents the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratories (AITC) for Aging Research program funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The a2 Collective comprises three AITCs centered at Johns Hopkins University (JH AITC), the University of Massachusetts Amherst (MassAITC), and the University of Pennsylvania (PennAITech) and the a2 Collective Coordinating Center managed by Rose Li and Associates, Inc. (RLA).
Media Contact
Megan Webb
Connected Future Labs
megan@connectedfuturelabs.com