{"id":366867,"date":"2026-08-09T14:30:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366867\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T14:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:30:22","slug":"usf-grad-develops-jewelry-sensors-to-detect-spiked-drinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366867\/","title":{"rendered":"USF grad develops jewelry sensors to detect spiked drinks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A University of South Florida graduate, athlete and CEO and co-founder of Elora, is celebrating more than receiving her MBA this weekend. Addison Bounds is putting that degree to use to help keep women safe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are developing miniaturized chemical sensors, and we\u2019re embedding them into aesthetic pieces of jewelry to prevent drink spiking,\u201d said Bounds.<\/p>\n<p>Sensors are being placed into bracelets and pendants. Bounds, who played beach volleyball for USF, says the motivation behind the mission is personal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a friend, and when we were in high school, we were at a party and she was having a great time and unfortunately, her drink was spiked and she ended up unconscious in a closet where her rapist had assaulted her,\u201d said Bounds, who is working to raise awareness.<\/p>\n<p>Kiara Robichaud is Elora\u2019s chief technology officer and co-founder. \u201cShe handles all of our technology, all of our research and development,\u201d said Bounds.<\/p>\n<p>Bounds explained how it works. \u201cShe used her straw to put a drop of the beverage on there, then we\u2019re able to instantly detect if there\u2019s something in this drink,\u201d said Bounds. \u201cThen, the demonstration of that notification component within the app.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Resource website, <a href=\"https:\/\/alcohol.org\/guides\/spiked\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alcohol.org<\/a> reports that 50% of women have had their food or drinks spiked by a stranger.<\/p>\n<p>USF Health toxicologist Dr. Marie Bourgeois, Ph.D., MPH, says drink spiking often goes unreported and said that symptoms can mimic intoxication.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s something like ketamine, you might have hallucinations, but for the most part, it\u2019s going to be a loss of motor control. Later on, you\u2019ll have gaps in your memory, anterograde amnesia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Elora\u2019s mission is to make sure those date-rape drugs don\u2019t get consumed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a product made by women for women to protect women,\u201d said Bounds. \u201cAnd we\u2019re really passionate about what we\u2019re doing, and we understand the consumer because we are the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Consumers and entrepreneurs say women won\u2019t have to sacrifice style for safety.<\/p>\n<p>Elora launches in January 2028 and is already looking at expanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A University of South Florida graduate, athlete and CEO and co-founder of Elora, is celebrating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,558,571,276,2200,2204,1187,115,139,135,137,136,1576,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-366867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-health","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-instagram-n13","tag-melissa-eichman","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-technology","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}