·       Nicolai, B.,: A Virtual Healthcare Electronic Medical Record Project – A Lilly Endowment Sponsored Internship Program for high-tech startup companies (2005), International Conference on Computer Science & Information System, pages 1-14, Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER),  Athens, Greece, June 15-18.  This presented paper has been accepted for international publication in the book entitled Computer Science and Information System, 2005, ISBN 960-88672-3-1.

This paper discusses a mentoring project sponsored by Purdue’s Lilly Foundation Interns for Indiana.  The Interns for Indiana’s purpose is to help Indiana retain more university graduates and foster high-tech startup companies throughout the state.  “Purdue’s Lilly Interns for Indiana” program sponsored by Lilly Endowment, Inc., Primary Investigator, Dr. Nabil Ibrahim, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, was created as a result of this effort.    The Virtual Healthcare Electronic Medical Record Project involves a start-up virtual medical company requiring an on-line capture of marketing and medical information in a database.  In its current state the virtual healthcare system provides a web site that facilitates the focus of health care to the home.  The Level I services, already developed, include: a facility web site, a provider web site, ultra encrypted e-mail, on-line chat, and audio, still photographs, individual, group and conference interactive audio/visual.  The Virtual Healthcare Electronic Medical Record Project has a very aggressive strategic plan in the development of its Level II applications.  These applications include a pre-intake registration for a doctor or hospital visit, an initial evaluation and consultation with a health provider, mental health consultation and services, substance abuse consultation and services, post treatment and hospitalization follow-up and monitoring on-going contact with hospital and health providers from home, 24 hour contact with health provider, and national/global access to primary care provider.  In order to succeed in this strategic plan of developing Level II, the capturing of information to a stable relational database is essential.  The project team analyzed, designed and modeled the physical database required to build this database.  In addition to the complex data modeling required, the issue of database security in a web environment is a major consideration in the design of this system.  The project team consisted of student interns whose expertise is in hardware, software, database design and implementation, database security and web development.  The faculty mentor is a professor whose research area is applied research in database modeling.  This paper addresses the on-going design model of the virtual healthcare system developed by the student project team using System Development Life Cycle Methodology for analysis and Relational Database Methodology for the logical database design.

·        Nicolai, B.,: Alternative Teaching Strategy for a Database Modeling Course, 2005, pages 1-6, 16^th Annual Information Resources Management Association International Conference (IRMA), San Diego, California, May 23-26

This paper discussed an alternative teaching strategy used in a database modeling course offered as a distance learning course.  This course historically has been offered only on campus in a lecture and lab setting.  The distance learning course uses Blackboard as the main teaching platform, coupled with the formation of electronic teams (e-teams) learning fundamental database modeling techniques to complete a required team project.  Faculty mentoring is conducted by means of email, telephone conference calls, campus appointments and voluntary lab support on campus.  A comparison of grades between the campus data modeling course and the distance learning data modeling course is conducted.  A student satisfaction survey is conducted at the end of the distance learning course.  The success or failure of the course on a distance learning platform will formulate the recommendation to the Computer Information and Information Technology (CISIT) Department to use or not use this course as a marketing mechanism to entice more students from the professional arena.

·         Nicolai, B.,: Is Database Curriculum Information Systems or Information Technology: An Accreditation Dilemma, 2004, pages 1-9, Information Systems Education Conference (ISECON), Newport, Rhode Island, Nov. 4-7

This paper addressed the dilemma of how the Database curriculum is positioned into an accreditation model, either the Information Systems (IS) 2002 Model Curriculum and the Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree programs in Information Systems or the Draft Accreditation Criteria – Baccalaureate Programs in Information Technology.  In discussing these issues, the author discussed the background of the IS 2002 Model, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education accreditation draft document, the Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) accreditation process, examples of database curriculum under both an Information Systems  and Information Technology model, a comparison of the two perspectives and conclude with a recommendation choosing either the Information Systems or Information Technology Accreditation Model.

·         Nicolai, B.,: Teaching Database Modeling Within the Constructs of an Undergraduate Research Grant, 2004, Information Resources Management Association International Conference (IRMA), New Orleans, LA, May 23-26

Purdue University Calumet has developed an Undergraduate Research Grant Program providing students with the opportunity of collaborating with a faculty mentor in an area of mutual interest.  This relationship provides the students with the opportunity to investigate an idea in great depth and experience the academic world of research.  The faculty experiences the satisfaction of mentoring the students in the discovery process and sharing the skill set necessary to engage in a research area. This paper described a student team awarded an Undergraduate Research Grant to work with a University of Arizona Medical Group providing them with a data collection system.  A description of the methods and rationales behind the fully normalized position-based survey collection database model is addressed in this paper.  The final database design was created to fulfill the need for collecting research data via survey forms. The impact of undergraduate research program on information technology education, faculty/mentor impact, analytical and research findings is discussed.

·         Nicolai, B.,: Identifying Effective factors for Women Participation in Technology: A Database Model, 2003, Information Systems Education Conference (ISECON), Meritorious Paper Award from Educators Special Interest (ESPIG) of Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), San Diego, CA, Nov. 6-9 

This paper is a continuance of my paper presented at the ISECON 2001 Conference that addresses the issue of  how our young women are not only falling through the cracks of the information superhighway, but that they are not even interested in the technology field.  This paper was published in April of 2000  by the American Association of University Women (AAUW).  After two years of creating programs that offer different strategies to attract more females to the technology field, the factors that contribute to this phenomenon have been identified.  Studies have found that there is a lack of mentorship at the high school level, because girls are again facing decade-old stereotypical biases.  Girls want careers in which they can “make a difference.”  Girls have little or no knowledge about IT careers. The research information has been organized into a database model as a base for future studies investigating the continued phenomenon of gender inequality in the technology field.  This model has identified the major entity or category groups, normalized the data into a database model using current relational database methodology.  The result presented in the paper defines a physical database structure that will incorporate existing information that will add to the “body of knowledge” of contribution factors of the gender inequity in the field of technology

·         Nicolai., B.,: Where have all the women gone? The gender ‘brain drain’ in Technology: A Database Perspective, 2003, Purdue University Calumet Poster Session of Scholarly Work, Hammond, IN Jan 29-30

A continuation of my research presented, “The Invisible Society of Women in Technology: Young Women’s Reluctance to Enter the Technology Field”, ISECON, 2001

·         Nicolai, B.,: The Invisible Society of Women in Technology: Young Women’s Reluctance to Enter the Technology Field, 2001, pages 1-4, Information Systems Education Conference (ISECON), Cincinnati, OH, Nov 1-4

In April of 2000 the American Association of University Women (AAUW) published a startling report about how our young women are not only falling through the cracks of the information superhighway, but are not even interested in the technology field.  The worry has been that our girls are computer-phobic.   What the Commission on Technology, Gender and Teacher Education discovered is that girls are “computer reticent.”   The Executive Summary of the “TECH-SAVVY – Educating Girls in the New Computer Age” focused on key themes to investigate as well as offered suggestions to creating mentorship programs and educational curricula that would address these issues.

With the creation of programs that offer differ strategies in order to attract more females to the technology field, the issue of our girls falling through the cracks of the information superhighway will at least be addressed.  We need cooperation between academic institutions, middle, high school and university, and our corporate world.  Mentorship programs, leadership workshops and committed leaders need to take action now to stop the trend that’s not only lowering the glass ceiling, but also once again creating an “invisible society of women.”

·   Nicolai*, B., Brinker**, C., Stauer**, B.,: Alternative Therapies in Neonatal Outcomes Database Design, 2003, University of Arizona

Conducted collaboration as a consultant in research project with University of Arizona studying the benefits of Alternative Therapies in Neonatal Outcomes, 2003

o              Provided Database analysis and design and technical support for application system to be developed by PUC Senior Project members, Chris Brinker and Brett Stauer.

o              Acted as Faculty Advisor for Senior Project Team.  Primary Investigator: Dr. Sharon I. McDonough-Means, MD, FAAP, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Arizona, 2003.

o              Awarded a Purdue University Undergraduate Research Grant for $800.00 for senior students, Chris Brinker and Brett Stauer.  Monies to be used for on-site installation of completed database.

·         Nicolai, B., Petina, L.,: Technology program and database research for the Center for Women’s Education and Counseling, (2002), Belarus

As database consultant, I was involved in a research project to establish a technology program and database research for the Center for Women’s Education and Counseling in collaboration with Ludmila Petina and ELIVRA University, Belarus, 2002.

·         Nicolai, B., Morrow, C., Rupp, R.,: Grant for an international 2000 NIS College and University Partnership exchange program with ENVILA, (2000), Belarus

Database/Technology Consultant on grant for an international 2000 NIS College and University Partnership exchange program with ENVILA, Belarus with Colette Morrow, Women Studies (PUC) and Richard Rupp, (PUC).  Department Approval granted for faculty participation.  This work is a continuation of the previous 1999 grant.

·         Nicolai, B., Morrow⁺⁺, C., Rupp, R.,: Grant for an international 1999 NIS College and University Partnership exchange program with ENVILA, (1999), Belarus

Database/Technology Consultant on grant for an international 1999 NIS College and University Partnership exchange program with ENVILA, Belarus, Russia with Colette Morrow, Women Studies (PUC) and Richard Rupp, (PUC).

·         Nicolai, B., Alexandar⁺⁺, R.,: Department of Nursing (PUC), and University of Chicago researching Women’s Health Care, (1999)

Database Consultant on grant with Rinda Alexandar, Department of Nursing (PUC), and University of Chicago researching Women’s Health Care, 1999.