Authenticity. You can feel the authenticity of everyone here. Everyone works well together. Everyone is accessible and everyone is willing to share.”
Javar Dougall was born and raised in Jamaica. Always interested in learning how things worked, he knew he wanted to get into the engineering field since the age of 15.
After learning about the APL through his mentor, Dr. Max Denis, Javar met with members of the APL, to include Executive Director Dr. Kevin Williams. Upon learning about the APL-UW and UDC Capstone Project opportunity, his connection with APL bloomed.
In March, Javar and his fellow capstone colleague came to APL-UW to work on their project with their APL mentors. During his springtime visit to the Pacific Northwest, Javar not only enjoyed the APL work environment, but he enjoyed the Seattle environment as well.
Later in the year, Javar learned about the summer internship opportunities at APL through CHARGE. Despite already graduating from UDC with his B.S. in electrical engineering, he saw the internship as an opportunity to gain knowledge and hands-on experience that would benefit him personally and professionally.
As much as I wanted to jump into the work environment [upon graduation], I saw the potential of gaining everything that I needed to gain from the internship. So, I started my senior capstone. That was a success. And now, I’m here working on something very similar, but more complicated.”
Meet Javar Dougall
Major
B.S. Electrical Engineering
How I came to APL-UW
I learned about APL-UW through my mentor Dr. Max Denis. I later met Kevin Williams, Warren Fox, and Lowell Jones from APL. I was interested in the work Kevin Williams presented to us at UDC and decided to take on the capstone project my senior year. After visiting APL in March and learning about the summer internship opportunity, I was all in.
Who helped me along the way
My mentor, Dr. Max Denis made the initial connection. I’d also add Nicolas Michel-Hart, the department head and principal engineer of Ocean Engineering – I work close to him. Separate from Nick, senior electrical engineer Kevin Zack frequently meets with me. If I have any difficulties, I’ll send him an email. He’s always willing to help me so quickly. Also, I work with senior oceanographer Wu-Jung Lee, who is the head of the project.
What I worked on
I worked on an acoustic array. It’s a four-microphone array set to track and record bat movements.
Where I see myself after CHARGE and in five years
After the internship, I plan to go back home to Washington, D.C. and earn certifications for the workforce – software engineering bootcamp, PLC (programmable logic controller) course, AWS (Amazon Web Services) course. I’m also considering earning my electrical license from the D.C./Maryland area. In five years, I hope to be done with my education – certification, master’s degree, whatever I decide. I’ll be in a profession that is the right fit for me, somewhere comfortable in a good environment, doing groundbreaking research that is recognized and beneficial to society.
We asked Javar what advice he would give to high school students wanting to attend college and aspire to get into the world of STEM. His advice:
Be open minded. The STEM field is wide. If you have an open mind, you’ll be interested in going into different fields. Your knowledge is boundless. You can learn so much being in the STEM field. Don’t tell yourself, ‘Hey, I want to do this,’ and just focus on [only] that. Be open minded to explore. And always always try to make a difference.”