Major: Kinesiology - Health Sciences concentration
Minor: Global Health Technologies
Shravya Kakulamarri majored in Health Sciences with a minor in Global Health Technologies. Her experiences as a Teaching Assistant in the Kinesiology Department, a student researcher in the Rice 360 Institute for Global Health, and various leadership positions helped shape who she is today and the type of professional she hopes to be in the future.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she is volunteering with the American Red Cross as a member of the biomedical team screening blood donors to ensure that they do not have any symptoms of COVID-19. She is inspired by all the healthcare professionals who are on the frontlines during this time and is eager to serve her community as a physician in the future.
For the last 2.5 years, Shravya worked with her teammates to create an affordable and reusable ostomy bag. Shravya’s team has won multiple awards at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen’s Annual Showcase. Additionally, she has been invited to speak at Yale University’s Unite for Sight Global Health Conference, the Health Research and Innovation Symposium in Barretos, Brazil, and a TEDx conference in Redmond, Washington.
She has served as a Teaching Assistant for several classes including Dr. Diep’s HEAL 380 class and Dr. Kabiri’s KINE 301 class. Additionally, she has also TAed for GLHT 201 and BIOC 301. She has fallen in love with teaching and plans to integrate it into her career in the future as a physician.
In the Summer of 2018, Shravya traveled to Barretos, Brazil as an intern for the Rice 360 Institute for Global Health. Alongside multiple radiologists at Hospital de Câncer de Barretos, she and another student developed a low-cost breast cancer model compatible with ultrasound- and mammogram-guided fine-needle aspirations (FNA) for use with medical residents.
In the Summer of 2019, Shravya interned at a medical device startup called Rebion in Boston. Rebion is focused on creating ocular screening devices for strabismus and traumatic brain injury. As an intern, she delved deeper into the engineering design process, formatted and edited work instructions documents, drafted applications for grants funded by the FDA, had the opportunity to travel to Minnesota to meet with clinical partners, and more.
Outside of academics, Shravya was the 2019-20 President of both Catalyst, Rice’s Undergraduate Research Journal, and Rice All-Stars, a club dedicated to increasing awareness of and decreasing the stigma around disabilities. She was also a leader at her residential college, serving as the Head Academic Fellow, an Associates Committee Head, and a Peer Academic Advisor.
She will be a Global Health Fellow for Rice 360 during the upcoming year. As a Fellow, she will be continuing her research on a low-cost and reusable ostomy bag, conducting clinical trials for the device, as well as refining the design to take it to the final steps of commercialization. She will also be applying to medical school during this time.