BLACK ENGINEER OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS MOST PROMISING ENGINEER IN GOVERNMENT
Lt. Andre Douglas Naval Architect/Salvage Engineering Response Team Duty Officer U.S. Coast Guard
A
student with excep- tional drive, Lt. Andre
Douglas’s career track at the USCG reads like that suspense novel you can’t put down.
The USCG naval architect and marine engineer, mechanical
engineer, and salvage engineering response team duty officer, launched his esteemed career after graduating in 2008 with hon- ors and a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Coast Guard Academy.
Immediately following commissioning, then Ensign Douglas was assigned as the electrical division officer aboard the Vigilant, a 210-foot medium-endurance Coast Guard cutter, where he su- pervised a team of shipboard electricians, managed the division’s maintenance and repair budget, and qualified as engineer of the watch — responsible for operating the shipboard engineering plant.
At sea, Lt. Douglas assisted the lead engineering officer with oversight of more than $8 million in shipboard repair work, in- cluding replacement of the ship’s service generators, during Vigi- lant’s life-extending mission effectiveness project. As the damage control assistant and fueling officer, Lt. Douglas addressed ship stability concerns and directed the safe transfer of hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil while in foreign ports. His superior service in the engineering department helped ensure the ship was always ready to meet USCG search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, alien migrant interdiction, and environmental protection needs.
Based on his superior performance and engineering aptitude, Lt. Douglas was selected for the USCG’s marine engineering postgraduate degree program. Under this two-year advanced education program, he attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 2012 with dual Master of Science degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering, and mechanical engineer- ing.
Following postgraduate studies, Lt. Douglas was assigned to the Marine Safety Center (MSC), in Arlington, a USCG head- quarters command that supports the people and objectives of the marine safety, security, and environmental protection programs through the verification of compliance with technical standards for the design, construction, alteration, and repair of commercial vessels.
As an engineer on MSC’s staff, he reviews and approves complex commercial vessel engineering designs, calculations and specifications to meet domestic, international and industry technical standards for safety and environmental protection. Lt. Douglas was initially assigned to the electrical branch during his first year at MSC, where he analyzed vessels’ electri- cal systems, including automation of shipboard control systems for vital main propulsion and auxiliary equipment.
www.blackengineer.com
His professional growth proceeded at a rapid pace, just like that suspense novel, and after just a year, he transitioned to the small vessel branch, where he currently handles in-depth reviews of vessel stability calculations and hull structural analyses for a variety of commercial cargo and passenger ships. In addition to his regularly assigned duties, Lt. Douglas serves as a member of the Coast Guard’s elite Salvage Engineer- ing Response Team (SERT), highly trained naval architects and marine engineers who stand ready 24 hours a day to support Coast Guard field commanders responding to emergent vessel casualty situations following groundings, collisions, and similar casualties, and to provide post-casualty forensic engineering analysis to determine proximate cause. Lt. Douglas’ engineering advice was relied on heavily dur- ing the recent evacuation of passengers from, and the re-floating of, the casino vessel Escapade after she ran hard aground off the coast of South Carolina. Similarly, on two separate occasions involving deep draft ships stricken by critical structural failures, his rapid evaluation of structural integrity and analysis of proposed repairs signifi- cantly contributed to the achievement of primary Coast Guard marine transportation safety objectives. And that’s just his day job.
He works unselfishly in the community in a number of aca- demic venues to promote interest in STEM careers.
OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION IN INDUSTRY
Daby Sow Principal Research Staff Member and Manager Exploratory Clinical Analytics and Systems
Cognitive Computing IBM Research
D
aby Sow, Ph.D., was born and raised in Da-
kar, Senegal. He relocated to Quebec City, Quebec, after Senegalese schools
were closed due to a student strike. Upon reaching Canada, Sow enrolled in a program that prepared students for the International Baccalaureate (IB). After earning the IB, he joined the electrical engineering program at Université Laval in Quebec. This marked the beginning of his engineering career. Dr. Sow started his IBM career as a research staff member in
the T.J. Watson Research Center. He worked on several research projects focused on representing and transforming data into useful information. A death in the family encouraged Dr. Sow to shift his focus onto engineering problems in healthcare. In 2006, he headed an international project with engineers and researchers from South Korea and the United States. The goal was to develop a system to provide real-time insights in remote patient monitoring data. He has done groundbreaking work in this area, which is changing the way hospitals interpret patient data. Dr. Sow is the driving force behind IBM’s focus on stream- ing analytic systems and algorithms for real-time critical care solutions. He has helped develop unique systems used in hos- pitals worldwide. Leading medical institutions, such as UCLA,
USBE&IT I WINTER 2015 31
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