Dr. David Ruttenberg is truly the Jack of all trades. From child piano prodigy to GRAMMY™️-producer to Amazon best-selling author to earning two undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and music, Dr. Ruttenberg has done it all. The ultimate career, however, was becoming a father at age 40.
As older parents, Dr. Ruttenberg and his wife Suzy Girard-Ruttenberg wanted to do it right the first time, getting continuous genetic testing to make sure everything was sound. At 18 months old, baby Phoebe received an early autism diagnosis accompanied by co-occurring ADHD and intractable epilepsy as well as a village of therapists, such as occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and behavioral therapists.
Engineering Empathy: Building Wearable Tech for Phoebe
After a jam sesh in the Ruttenberg’s home recording studio, Dr. Ruttenberg quickly found that Phoebe was hypersensitive to sensory inputs from her environment. With his engineering background, Dr. Ruttenberg did what he knew best. He built a wearable device for Phoebe that makes ecological sense of the stimuli around her. “At the same time, it would also parse information about herself psychophysiologically, including things like head sway, pupillary movement, pulse oximetry (or SpO2), and self-reports of anxiety and fatigue,” Dr. Ruttenberg shared. “The critical part is that whenever there was a matching stimulus to something that she knew was bothersome to her – a sound, a vision, a color, lighting – her body gave off some type of trigger that correlated to that cue.”
The wearable device was helpful in that it would take this information and help Phoebe through four types of intervention-like support:
- Gently guide her, either with a haptic buzz or text-to-speech message
- Alert her if something triggering may occur
- Filter noises or offending visual stimuli
- Combination of the three that is always customizable and always learning about her
Widening the Lens
The truth is “nobody is immune,” Dr. Ruttenberg shared. Autism, which was once narrowly considered an aggressive boy’s disease, is now recognized as a spectrum that can touch anyone, across age, gender, or background. As understanding expands, so does the urgency for inclusive solutions.
With such success with Phoebe’s wearable, Dr. Ruttenberg wondered if this device could be used for others who were also sensory-sensitive or who experience anxiety, fatigue, etc. Seeking answers, and at the age of 55, Dr. Ruttenberg decided to pursue his PhD in the United Kingdom, which houses some of the brightest minds in the world of cognitive neuroscience, neurodiversity, and artificial intelligence.
There, he worked under the guidance of 3 PhD supervisors that each brought something different to the table. But their first challenge surprised him. “They said, ‘You have it all wrong,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ They said “Well, we applaud you for what you did, but you’re a neurotypical dad. You created something for your daughter. And while it worked, how do you know the community wants this? How do you know they’ll find it efficacious? How do you know they’ll tolerate it?’” These questions reshaped his entire approach, from a personal mission to one grounded in science and co-designs from the community he sought to contribute to.
Now, as chairman of the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities at Florida Atlantic University, Dr. Ruttenberg leads efforts that reach over 9,000 participants, their caregivers, and health support practitioners in Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, and Saint Lucie counties. What began as a father’s solution for his daughter has evolved into a movement designed for many.
Bespoke AI and Personalized Sensory Support
Borrowed from British tailoring, the term “bespoke” refers to hyper-customization. In the world of personalized sensory support, Dr. Ruttenberg is a huge advocate of bespoke design over universal design, especially when it comes to supporting neurodivergent individuals. “It offers unparalleled personalization. It reflects the person’s identity, their preferences, and how they modulate throughout the day,” he noted.
While universal design provides equity and accessibility for all, it doesn’t address the highly specific needs that fall outside the average user. “If you identify as autistic, there’s nothing average about you because you’re not only different from every other person who has the same condition, but you’re changing throughout the day too,” Dr. Ruttenberg mentioned. What’s needed is something adaptive.
That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in.
“We’re not using AI to write reports — we’re using it to learn, in real time, what you want to make your life better, more accommodating, and more comfortable,” Dr. Ruttenberg shared. “AI’s ability to sift through massive streams of biological and ecological data and then identify patterns makes it uniquely suited to analyze sensory supports that evolve alongside the user.
Ethics of Innovation
As AI-driven tools have become more personalized, they also become more intrusive, raising ethical questions about data privacy and security. Bespoke support systems require constant input via real-time biofeedback, emotional responses, etc. While this data can be beneficial in providing extensive personalized sensory support, it also introduces potential risks.
“The amount of data we have to collect about a person who experience these conditions don’t necessarily understand how invasive the data is,” Dr. Ruttenberg mentioned. This is particularly important in at-risk, neurodivergent communities where there has already been a sense of mistrust with historical marginalization. Thus, personalized support must be centered around transparency and agency from the beginning.
“There is a way to sequester that incredibly personal securitized data and use it effectively on behalf of the wearer but then expunge it very quickly before anybody can figure out who it is and what happened.” In other words, ethical innovation must not only protect users but anticipate potential harm before it happens. Dr. Ruttenberg’s approach is built on a higher ethical standard where it values meaningful choice and data sovereignty.
Healthcare, Policy, and the Personal Cost of Bureaucracy
Despite recent innovations and increasing conversation, the current political climate is putting the community in danger in terms of healthcare access and policy. President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” a tax and spending bill, is immensely threatening to the lives of many who need drugs covered by Medicaid to survive. For instance, Phoebe takes an epilepsy drug that is covered by Medicaid. Without the coverage, Phoebe and her family would be paying $15K a month for this drug. “That’s $180,000 a year—for just one of our daughter’s lives saving medication. Lifesaving. Without Medicaid, our daughter, and millions of others like her don’t make it,” Dr. Ruttenberg shared.
These regulations reflect a broader issue at hand. Unfortunately, the law significantly reduces the amount of money to the states in which they can use to fund their own Medicaid programs. The issue here is that the states can cut certain funds that provide aid to populations who are unable to be employed, including neurodiverse individuals with a co-occurring diagnosis. The fact is that families ultimately can go into medical bankruptcy just to keep their loved ones alive.
Hope, Resistance, and What Comes Next
In the face of political challenges however, there is significant hope in the future of autism tech and inclusive innovation. For Dr. Ruttenberg, the future isn’t about owning the marketplace, it’s rather about making sure the tools reach the people who need them. “Our goal, quite frankly, is to have a large health-technology or big tech company to run commercialize our patents…with our permission of course,” he told me. “Trusted brands who have commercial reach, infrastructure…we want them to buy our IP, pay back our initial investors, and then everyone can sleep better at night knowing they did the right thing by contributing to the community who has been marginalized and forgotten.” While Ruttenberg has clinically validated and prototyped his own hardware and apps, partnering with a larger company enables Dr. Ruttenberg to scale accessibility, embedding neurodivergent support into mainstream tech ecosystems.
What began as a father’s love for his daughter has grown into a call for compassionate and ethical technology. The real innovation isn’t just in the AI or the sensors. It’s in the belief that individuals who are neurodivergent deserve carefully crafted support designed with them in the center.