Prof. Victor Mbarika

Southern University’s ICITD Awarded NSF/OISE IRES Grant

Project Title: A US-Cameroon Collaboration for Information Technology in Healthcare (E-Medicine) Research in Resource-Poor Contexts

Amount Funded: $150,000

PROJECT SUMMARY

This project lays the foundation for a systematic continuation of the PI’s prior NSF and NASA funded research in e-medicine and multimedia instructional technologies. Using these funding sources, the PI and his team have implemented and assessed e-medicine technologies in developing nations in sub-Saharan Africa as well as in rural Louisiana.  Further, they have been funded to develop multimedia instructional technologies to bring real world information technology issues to the classroom.  This research and educational program will continue for three years.   During the summer and winter breaks of its three year duration; the PI, Dr. Victor Mbarika and Co-PI, Dr. Carlos Thomas, will establish a sustainable educational partnership between Southern University, two Universities in Cameroon--The University of Buea and The University of Yaounde Medical School (a teaching hospital).

Two undergraduate and two graduate students will be selected from Southern University and the same number will be selected from two institutions in Cameroon. These students will collaborate in developing and publishing e-medicine case studies that will be packaged with multimedia features and delivered through the Internet and CDs for teaching Global E-Health issues in US and African classes. Read More on ICITD Website

Southern University’s ICITD Awarded NSF Workshop Grant

Workshop Grant: US-Cameroon Collaborative Research and Education on E-medicine at University of Buea, Cameroon

Amount Funded:  $41,000

Project Summary

We propose to establish an interdisciplinary collaborative international program that: 1) promotes integrated research in information technology and medicine, and 2) prepares future graduates with certifications and practical experience in e-medicine for jobs in related health and information technology professions. This project lays the foundation for a systematic continuation of the PI’s prior NSF and NASA funded research in e-medicine (for sub-Saharan Africa) and multimedia instructional technologies. Using these funding sources, the PI and his team have implemented and assessed e-medicine technologies in developing nations in sub-Saharan Africa, and rural Louisiana.  Further, they have been funded to develop multimedia instructional technologies to bring real world information technology issues to the classroom. The project completion depends on disciplines relying on one another, and the collaboration of US and Cameroonian universities and medical institutions. The two-day workshop will focus on two measurable objectives: (i) To bring together a suite of international collaborators who are engaged in student learning and research, and to use the dynamic of our interaction to develop the human capacity of all participants and that of participating institutions; (ii) To establish specific practical steps towards active research collaborations, in terms of journal and conference publications, collaborations between students and faculty from participating institutions. Read More on ICITD Website

Southern University’s ICITD is Honored with Prestigious Fulbright Award

Southern University’s International Center for Information Technology and Development located in the College of Business, under the direction of Dr. Victor Mbarika has been awarded the Fulbright Award to provide the institution with eHealth courses in available to undergraduate and graduate classes. These classes will be in the College of Business’s Information Technology program as well as the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy’s doctoral research program to help students understand the evolution of health, its policies and the technological outlook of it.

The Fulbright Award scholar who will be heading this project will be Dr. Mengistu Kifle. Dr. Kifle is one of Africa’s leading experts on telemedicine and eHealth. Under Dr. Kifle, many policy makers will understand the importance of eHealth as one of the benefits of this advanced knowledge will cut governmental costs. Courses offered will also confer various aspects of information systems from a global perspective. Along with these courses, research collaboration will occur with the International Center for IT and Development’s researchers. Through this research, data will be collected in rural Louisiana and a comparison will be made to see adoption differences between the Ethiopian and Louisiana experience. Read More on ICITD Website

College of Business Professor Receives NSF Award

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently informed Dr. Victor Wacham Mbarika of the selection of his proposal for funding by NSF in the amount of $500,000 over a five-year period.

"CAREER: Information Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: An E-Medicine Model for Sub-Saharan Africa".

Read More on ICITD Website

ICITD Director, Dr. Victor Mbarika, receives $500,000 in Multimedia Funding from National Science Foundation

Title of Project:  Education Research Grant: A Multi-Metric Approach to Assess Impact of STEM Instructional Multimedia on Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Outcomes

PROJECT SUMMARY

Experts predict that 50% of personnel training in the coming decade will be delivered via multimedia-based instructional systems. Multimedia case studies have been hypothesized to help develop critical skills that employers expect graduates to have in order to become good applied problem solvers, effective decision makers, proficient technical analysts and collaborative team players in real-world situations. The LITEE group, an NSF-sponsored project, has pioneered efforts in designing quality multimedia case studies for use in engineering classes. Success with these efforts was further enhanced through an NSF grant the PI received in Summer 2003 to adapt and implement LITEE multimedia case studies in information technology (IT) classrooms. In the past seven years, this collaborative effort has concentrated on adopting multimedia technology for use in IT classrooms and diffusing the technology among partnering universities and across various disciplines, a trend that is evidenced by the growing use of multimedia case studies in the classrooms. Notwithstanding this growth, assessment research on the impact of multimedia case studies is rare and knowledge on best practices for implementing the technology and students’ learning outcomes are still lacking. The proposed three-year research and education plan aims to identify and validate a battery of measures to analyze how the teaching and learning of real-world technical issues through the use of multimedia case studies can enhance learning outcomes. The planned research will be an integral part of a doctoral dissertation that will be co-chaired by the PIs. Read More on ICITD Website

Dr Victor Mbarika Awarded NASA/UNCFSP Grant

NASA/UNCFSP Press Release:

College of Business’ Dr. Victor Mbarika, receives $120,000 in funding from NASA/UNCFSP to study the use of Louisiana’s LONI supercomputer optical network to deliver multimedia course content among several HBCUs…

Project Title: Using Louisiana’s Supercomputer Optical Network (LONI) to Optimize Development, Delivery and Assessment of Multimedia Instructional Technologies: Implications for Improving Higher-Order Decision-Making Skills

1.  Southern University is the lead institution in a consortium of three minority institutions (Southern University – Baton Rouge, Southern University – New Orleans, Winston-Salem State University), NASA, and an industrial partner (Apple Computers) to apply supercomuting instructional technologies to the training of higher-order cognitive skills.

Relevance to NASA. NASA flight crews must continually make high level cognitive decisions. Dornheim (2000) has documented that decision errors are second only to procedural errors as the direct cause of flight-crew involved accidents, patterns of differences between good and bad crews, and pilots' perception of risk.

Project Goal. To assess the pedagogical effectiveness of multimedia instructional technologies as a means of developing higher-order cognitive skills when delivered through a supercomputer network.

Read More on ICITD Website

MORE GRANTS AND OTHER SPONSORED RESEARCH

GRANTS RECIEVED.

1. Principal Investigator (2011): National Science Foundation (NSF). Research Experience for Teachers. ~ $15,000
2. Principal Investigator (2011): Louisiana Board of Regents: A Theoretical Investigation of “Low-Tech” Information Technology Use for Healthcare Delivery in Resource-Poor Settings of Rural Louisiana and Sub-Saharan Africa ~ $10,000 (Seed Grant).
3. Principal Investigator (2010): Fulbright. The Transatlantic Cybercrime Menace.~ $35,000
4. Principal Investigator (2010): National Science Foundation (NSF). A Multi-Media Case Study Pedagogical Approach on Electronic Health Records for STEM Students. ~ $588,731
5. Principal Investigator (2010): National Science Foundation (NSF). Research Experience for Undergraduates. ~ $12,000
6. Principal Investigator (2009): National Science Foundation (NSF). Workshop Grant: US-Cameroon Collaborative Research and Education on E-medicine at University of Buea, Cameroon.  ~$41,000
7. Principal Investigator (2009): IRES: National Science Foundation (NSF). A US-Cameroon Collaboration for Information Technology in  Healthcare (E-Medicine) Research in Resource-Poor Contexts.  ~$150,000
8. Principal Investigator (2009).  Fulbright.  Scholar-In-Residence Grant. ~$35,000
9. Principal Investigator (2009): National Science Foundation (NSF). Research Experience for Undergraduates. ~ $16,000
10. Principal Investigator (2008): National Science Foundation (NSF). A Multi-Metric Approach to Assess the Impact of STEM Instructional Multimedia on Undergraduate Teaching & Learning Outcomes.  ~$500,000
11. Principal Investigator (2008): National Science Foundation (NSF). Research Experience for Undergraduates. ~ $12,000
12. Principal Investigator (2008): Louisiana Board of Regents.: A Theoretical Model for Electronic Medical Records Adoption in Resource-Poor Settings: The Case of Rural Louisiana ~ $10,000 (Seed Grant).
13. Principal Investigator (2007): National Science Foundation (NSF). Research Experience for Undergraduates. ~ $12,000
14. Principal Investigator (2007): National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Grant. Information technology transfer to developing countries: an e-medicine model for Sub-Saharan Africa ~ $520,000
15. Principal Investigator (2007): NASA/UNCFSP. Using Louisiana’s supercomputer optical network (LONI) to optimize development, delivery and assessment of multimedia instructional technologies: implications for improving higher-order decision-making skills~ $120,000.
16. Principal Investigator with Moustapha Diack (2007): LONI. Optimizing development, delivery and assessment of multimedia instructional technologies for e-business training: a multi-institutional study; Center for Information Technology and Innovations. $ 40,000
17. Co-PI with Solomon Negash (2007): Microsoft. Determinants of social networks: ICT inhibitor and facilitator factors for youth groups in developing economies. ~$6,000
18. Principal Investigator (2003): National Science Foundation (NSF). Adapting multimedia instructional materials to communicate engineering and information technology issues to business students.~ $100,000
19. Principal Investigator (2006): Louisiana Board of Regents.: A multi-metric approach to investigate the impact of multimedia technology on student learning~ $10,000 (Seed Grant).
20. Principal Investigator (2005) Travel Grant from Louisiana Board of Regents, $1,000
21. Core Faculty Senior Investigator (2005): National Science Foundation (NSF). Establishing and sustaining faculty networks to bring real-world issues into engineering classrooms, $200,000.