Converse Students Present Research Findings at SCICU Symposium

So what did you do during summer break? Six Converse College students joined 25 other students from South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (SCICU) during a symposium to present the results of their summer research projects. The symposium was held Feb. 7th at Fluor Daniel in Greenville, SC.

Grant proposals from the students were selected for funding by a SCICU panel. The Converse students conducted non-credit summer research projects under the direction of a Converse professor. Lynn Dancho and Sallie DeCaro worked on obtaining a more complete picture of the Galileans. The study was part of the Converse in Israel project at the archaeological dig at Sepphoris, a first-century Jewish city in Galilee.

Dancho, a sophomore from Lugoff, SC, looked at evidence of animal bones found at the site, while DeCaro, a junior from Montgomery, AL, studied the evidence of stone vessels. Dr. Byron McCane, associate professor of religion at Converse, directed their research.

Pamela Emanuelson, a senior from Ladson, SC, and Amy Bates, a junior from Tuscumbia, AL, searched for family models in movies from the 1970s and 1990s. Dr. Bob Muzzy, associate professor of sociology at Converse, supervised their work.

Sharon Simmons teamed with Dr. Karlyn Ammons Barilovits to focus on natural language processing by artificial neural networks using the Hebb Learning Rule. Simmons is a senior from West Columbia, SC. Barilovits works in the Department of Math, Computer Science and Physics at Converse.

Sara Hardy, a senior from Hephzibah, GA, focused her research on 17th-century author, Joseph Swetnam. Sara’s work was directed by Dr. Laura Brown, assistant professor of English at Converse.