On Bended Knee
Margaret Gibson ’24 was delighted when Brandon Sems ’24 approached her in the summer of 2023 to join a senior design team aimed at developing — and potentially marketing — a physical therapy device to help people heal their knees.
“It was such a terrific idea and had the potential to help so many people,” she says. “I watched my dad struggle to get to his physical therapy appointments after a long day at his job, so working on a device that could provide high-quality physical therapy at home while you’re watching TV just seemed like a great way to spend our senior year.”
Sems also recruited fellow biomedical engineering majors Jalen Bailey ’24 and Grace Fukazawa ’24 “because I was serious about this and wanted a team that would take it just as seriously, and they are all incredible,” he says.
The students spent countless hours developing the device they dubbed Knee-sy Does It, a portable bench outfitted with a motorized cuff designed to warm up and manipulate the knee precisely the way a physical therapist would do it. And last April 26, at the annual Stevens Innovation Expo that showcases student design efforts, they delivered an elevator pitch that won first place — and a $10,000 prize — in the Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition.
The competition is designed to judge how convincingly teams are able to persuade prospective investors to help them turn their ideas into businesses. “We always knew we wanted this to become a real business,” Sems says. “So winning the Ansary prize was incredibly encouraging and provided us seed money to get started.”
The team’s advisor, Peter Popolo, associate professor of biomedical engineering, says the project was impressive from the start. “Unlike most senior design projects, it was a student-generated idea, and they had a pretty fleshed-out concept from the get-go,” he says. “Most teams don’t have a prototype until the end of the second semester; Knee-sy Does It was on their fourth prototype by the time of the competition. They were so driven and had such a good presentation, I was delighted they got that recognition.”
Post-graduation, Sems and Gibson are committed to bringing Knee-sy Does It to what they estimate are 2 million potential customers in the United States — including people recovering from knee surgery or trying to alleviate arthritis pain.
They continue to refine the prototype as they work to incorporate the business, secure a patent and, ultimately, FDA approval, and consult potential investors.
“It’s a great device and our dream is that Knee-sy Does It will soon become the product orthopedic surgeons prescribe for at-home physical therapy,” Gibson says.
Learn more about Team Knee-sy Does It’s latest accomplishments.
– Joan Cramer