Coker College Student James Sweeney Presents Research

HARTSVILLE, S.C. (04/11/2012)(readMedia)-- Coker College student James Sweeney, of Huntingtown, Md., recently presented at the third annual Coker College Celebration of Academics Student Research Symposium. Continuing in a tradition that began during President Robert Wyatt's inauguration as the 16th president of the College in 2010, Coker hosted a week-long campus-wide Celebration of Academics April 9-13. This year's schedule also included presentations of student-faculty research and service-learning projects as well as a performing arts showcase.

For his research project, "Parallelization of the Single Machine Weighted Tardiness Problem," Sweeney used distributed computing environments as well as general purpose graphics processor calculations to obtain solutions to the single machine weighted tardiness problem. Speedups of over 10 times were obtained using traditional distributed computers, while speedups of over 100 times were obtained using graphics processors. Sweeney is a senior mathematics major at Coker.

Established in 1908, Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the "Best Colleges" in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.