Concussion detection and treatment has been the buzz of the sports world in recent years.

For the most part, the immediate effects of a concussion are temporary. These include headaches and trouble with concentration, memory, balance and coordination.

But what doctors are most concerned with is the possibility of second impact syndrome for people who have already suffered a concussion. This occurs when a person suffers a second concussion before the first concussion has healed.

A second head injury carries far greater long-term complications: a higher risk of epilepsy and progressive impairment that limits the brain’s ability to function properly.

Michael Dietz was lying in bed in early September when he conceived of a more effective concussion detection product that could help prevent second impact syndrome. Dietz’s product is the basis for Sudden Impact Analytics, his startup that deals with concussion detection in youth sports.

His product doesn’t diagnose concussions: it identifies whether or not an athlete was hit hard enough to warrant further testing. A chip is attached to a specialized mouth guard, which relays the possibility of a concussion to coaches or other sideline personnel through a smartphone application. The price of the package is $50.

One of the company’s objectives is to get concussed athletes off the field — had Michigan quarterback Shane Morris been wearing Dietz’s mouthpiece, former Michigan head coach Brady Hoke and his sideline staff would have had no excuse not to remove Morris from the game. Morris suffered a concussion last season, and the fallout from his injury contributed to Hoke’s eventual dismissal from Michigan.

Dietz, a senior in electrical engineering, has been involved in amateur boxing for about a year and is currently participating in the Chicago Golden Gloves tournament. He has read a lot about concussions, because as a boxer, he is worried about getting one. Most of what he read recommended strengthening the neck in order to avoid a concussion.

“One of the biggest causes of concussions is the linear and rotational acceleration of the head,” Dietz said. “One day, I thought about how I can actually measure the acceleration of the head. I just looked into it, and it was feasible, so I went for it.”

Dietz is not working on his product alone. He refers to himself as the “ideas guy.” Joe Benassi, a senior computer science major, and Hanish Moola, a junior aerospace engineering major, are also involved in the process. Benassi focuses most of his attention on the app side of the product, while Moola designs the look of the product itself and the company’s website.

Since Dietz and his team started the design and production of the detector, they’ve participated in (and won) one major competition: “54,” an event hosted by Founders in late September that encourages Illinois students to launch their own companies. Founders is an entrepreneurial student group at the University.

Sudden Impact Analytics is now participating in Illinois’ Cozad competition, hosted by Illinois’ Technology Entrepreneur Center. Running from February through April, Cozad provides finalists the opportunity to meet with venture capitalists, early stage investors and successful entrepreneurs. In 2014, eight finalist groups competed for nearly $200,000 in funding and other prizes.

Dietz was confident that his product would win the earlier competition, but Cozad is a different story. Because of the vast number of applicants, Cozad will be more competitive, though Dietz has a new component in mind that can help his campaign.

“We were becoming a ‘notify of a severe impact’ company,” Dietz said. “That wasn’t enough for me, so I started thinking about how the age-old method to detect concussions is the eyes. I said if you can track an athlete’s eye movement, you can probably predict concussions very well.”

One of the first tests doctors perform when checking a patient for a concussion is to have the patient follow a finger back and forth. If the patient is concussed, his eyes will not move in sync. Dietz’s newest idea would replace the finger test.

When a player is brought to the sideline after an alert of serious impact, Dietz would have the player watch a special video on a phone and have the camera on the phone run a computer vision algorithm to track the pupils.

“Just sensing the little variations in the pupils, I think you can not only diagnose concussions but say how severe they are,” Dietz said. “It could be more accurate than a CT scan.”

Dietz can point to a time when his video eye tracker would have come in handy.

A few years ago, his younger brother suffered a concussion while their parents were not home — Dietz’s brother was tackled by a friend while playing football and hit his head.

“We freaked out. It was pretty scary,” Dietz said. “Then, you go to the doctor and get a CT scan. It costs a couple grand. You wait around for hours, and there’s no treatment for it. I’d ask my mom, ‘Why even bother bringing him to the doctor?’ If a parent can just pay $10 to download our app and have her kid watch a two-minute video, that’s the easiest thing.”

When Sudden Impact Analytics’ products become available to buy, they will be aimed at youth sports, because safety is the highest priority at that level. In the NFL, players are provided with a similar concussion detecting device, but not many wear it, in fear of being taken out and losing their starting positions.

“High school football and middle school football is about safety. It’s kids,” Dietz said, “At the end of the day, football is not going to be around that long in this country. It’s too dangerous, so let’s make it safer while we can. NFL players aren’t worried about concussions like kids and parents are.”

Dietz said that he is entering the concussion-detecting industry at both a good and bad time. Everyone is looking for an answer to the concussion problem. But Dietz said that only encourages him to make the best product possible.

“It’s going to be tough,” Dietz said, “but it’s definitely doable.”

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