CBU and Ironmind.ai launch research partnership to explore how wearable AI can advance women's athlete health
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Sept. 26, 2026) — California Baptist University and Ironmind.ai recently announced a research partnership to explore how wearable technology and artificial intelligence can advance women’s athlete health through continuous physiological monitoring.
The collaboration brings together CBU’s nationally recognized sport and performance psychology program with Ironmind.ai’s wearable intelligence platform to investigate how continuous physiological, behavioral and contextual data can support athletes, coaches and sport psychology professionals between traditional assessments while creating meaningful research opportunities for faculty and graduate students.
The initial research will focus on women collegiate athletes — an area that has received growing attention but remains comparatively underrepresented in sports science research. Historically, much of the evidence guiding training, recovery and performance monitoring has been derived from studies involving predominantly male athletes, leaving important questions about female physiology unanswered. Factors such as hormonal fluctuations, menstrual cycle phases, recovery patterns, stress responses, sleep quality and travel-related fatigue may influence readiness and performance differently in women. As women’s sports continue to grow globally, there is increasing demand for evidence-based approaches that reflect the unique physiological and psychological needs of female athletes rather than relying primarily on data derived from male populations. This partnership aims to help address these research gaps by generating evidence specific to women athletes through continuous, real-world monitoring.
Unlike traditional approaches that rely primarily on periodic assessments or individual wearable dashboards, the study will investigate how team-level intelligence through continuous, remote monitoring can provide coaches and sport psychology practitioners with actionable insights throughout an athletic season. By combining wearable physiological data with behavioral and contextual information, the research seeks to better understand athlete readiness, recovery, resilience and overall wellbeing while supporting more informed, evidence-based decisions.
“For decades, wearable technology has helped individuals better understand their own health. Our vision is to help coaches, clinicians and sport psychology professionals understand the readiness of an entire team,” said Jonathan Wan, co-founder and CEO of Ironmind.ai. “By combining AI with continuous physiological monitoring, we hope to transform fragmented data into actionable intelligence that supports healthier athletes, faster recovery and better-informed decisions. This partnership represents an important step toward advancing women’s athlete health while translating research into practical tools that can benefit athletes, coaches, clinicians and researchers.”
The project will utilize wearable sensors integrated with Ironmind.ai’s secure, device-neutral platform while maintaining appropriate privacy protections and role-based access for athletes, sport psychology practitioners and coaches. The collaboration will also explore novel physiological biomarkers, including Pulse Shape Features, a vascular signal developed through research by Nitto Denko Corp., to better understand its relationship with athlete readiness, recovery, and resilience.
“This partnership provides an exciting opportunity to combine applied sport psychology, emerging wearable technologies and student research in ways that can generate meaningful scientific evidence while preparing the next generation of practitioners,” said Dr. Kristin Mauldin, associate professor of sport and performance psychology at CBU. “We look forward to exploring how continuous monitoring can deepen our understanding of athlete wellbeing, strengthen evidence-based practice and translate research into real-world impact for women athletes.”
Following Institutional Review Board approval, the research team expects to launch an initial pilot study with CBU student-athletes. The findings are intended to contribute to peer-reviewed research while informing future applications of wearable AI in collegiate athletics, healthcare and women’s sports.
About California Baptist University
Founded in 1950, California Baptist University is the largest Christian university in California. CBU offers 106 bachelor’s programs, 44 master’s programs and 11 doctoral programs. Its College of Behavioral and Social Sciences offers graduate education in Sport and Performance Psychology that combines scientific research with applied practice to prepare future practitioners, researchers and consultants. Through collaborations with collegiate athletics and industry partners, CBU advances evidence-based research that supports athlete performance, mental wellbeing, leadership development and the translation of research into real-world impact.
About Ironmind.ai Inc.
Ironmind.ai is building the AI intelligence layer for wearable health. Its secure, device-neutral platform transforms wearable, physiological, behavioral and contextual data into secure, continuous and actionable intelligence for healthcare providers, professional sports organizations, research institutions and enterprises. By delivering team-level intelligence through continuous monitoring, Ironmind.ai helps extend care between visits, improve athlete readiness and recovery, and support better decisions across sports and healthcare. The company is collaborating with organizations including NFL Forward, the NFL Alumni Association, Stanford University, UCSF, California Baptist University, the Women’s Professional Basketball Association, and other leaders advancing the future of wearable health and human performance.