![\"UConn](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_1279-226x300.jpg\")
While job-shadowing with a cardiologist, Beri saw that it was difficult to get consistent images while taking echocardiograms, which are basically ultrasounds of the heart. It takes skill, dexterity, and a certain degree of strength to do well. She tried it and found the equipment tricky to use.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s finicky! The slightest movement could lose the image. I thought there might be a better way,\u201d Beri says. Even experienced ultrasound technicians can find it difficult and are prone to repetitive motion injuries of their hands, wrists, shoulders and back, according to the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography.<\/p>\n Beri had been on a robotics team in high school. She thought of a soft robot with an octagonal base and spider like-frame, with several linear actuatable arms and locomotive legs to move the transducer. This could then help automate the process and minimize variability. An additional benefit would be the ability to take an image without actually touching the patient, taking strain off the ultrasound tech. It might even be able to strap onto a person and get images while they are in motion.<\/p>\n She told the cardiologist and other mentors about her idea. The mentors said it sounded interesting and encouraged her to talk to a patent attorney. So she did.<\/p>\n \u201cWe discussed the process, and it actually sounded like something I could do,\u201d Beri says. Her patent for an ultrasound transducer holder was filed in May 2018 and recently granted. She is also a STEM Scholar, a member of the honors community, and is currently working on a service project for UConn\u2019s BOLD Women\u2019s Leadership Network. She aims to create an online tool to connect professional women with undergraduates looking for mentors in science, technology, and engineering fields.<\/p>\n In her spare time, she continues\u00a0to work on her prototype. When she\u2019s satisfied with the product, she\u2019ll start demonstrating it at medical technology conferences. Which is a perfect place to meet professionals in her field who might join her leadership network. And after that? She\u2019s interested in pursuing a career in medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Serena Beri has patented her invention while still an undergraduate at UConn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":176169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2256,156,2235,2225,2306],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1899],"class_list":["post-175998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-innovation","category-profile","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-voices"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 17:31:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175998"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176170,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175998\/revisions\/176170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/176169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175998"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=175998"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=175998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-13-at-6.11.20-PM-300x194.png\")