At a simple glance, he may seem like an ordinary happy-go-lucky individual, but Dr. Jayfus T. Doswell is nothing short of an entrepreneurial genius. He is the board chair of the Juxtopia Group, Inc and CEO, founder, and president of Juxtopia, LLC, a biomedical and information technology (BIO-IT) company that creates products and services to improve human learning and health performance.
His parents, social worker and historian Ronald Jayfus Doswell, and educator and entrepreneur Brenda Tucker Doswell, welcomed him to the world on December 2, 1972, in Baltimore, Maryland. Growing up, he went to Baltimore City Public High School, and he performed exceptionally well in computer programming, foreign languages, and entrepreneurship. While his love for martial arts propelled him to compete in Kung-Fu and Tae-Kwon-Do tournaments, his talent in playing the violin and classical piano enabled him to play in the Baltimore Youth Orchestra. This history paved the way for him to become the unique individual he is today, multitalented in technology, entrepreneurship, music performance/composition, leadership, poetry, engineering, science, athletics, and entrepreneurship.
However, growing up, he lacked the technical and mathematical mentorship he required to follow his childhood dream of becoming a robotics engineer or neurosurgeon, which kept him from creating a STEM foundation earlier. As a result, he contemplated studying either music or going for a STEM career. He eventually resolved to study both cognitive neuropsychology and computer science at Oberlin College, where he earned a B.A. degree in both in 1995. This he did in a bid to become a symbol for other young disadvantaged individuals who also face similar STEM-related roadblocks.
Additionally, Dr. Doswell earned a Master’s degree in Systems and Computer Science from Howard University in 1998 and a Ph.D. Degree in information technology from George Mason University in 2005. His dissertation: Building the virtual instructor: An Architecture for Developing Pedagogical Embodied Conversational Agents for Mixed Reality Environments, led to the development of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Virtual Instructor Pilot Research Group (VIPRG), in which he is the co-director. This 30-member international research group has created a standard for assembling virtual instructors for several interactive learning environments.
Dr. Doswell devoted six years to the research, design, and development of virtual instructors and what he describes as pedagogical embodied conversational agents (PECA). He continues to pool resources with the researchers from the VIPRG in relation to growing an international virtual instructor standard. He is investigating how mixed reality environments such as augmented reality and virtual reality can improve intellectual and psychomotor-based learning in different learning environments. Dr. Doswell also happens to be the conference chair for the Juxtopia Urban Learning Technology (JULT) and Virtual Instructor (VI) conferences. He has been published in several IEEE journals and conferences centered on learning technology.
Dr. Doswell worked as a senior software engineer at Lockheed Martin in 1998; 1999 saw him work as a system analyst in KPMG and systems engineer consultant at SAIC in 2003. In 2010, Doswell was named distinguished professor of Biotechnology at Elizabeth City State University. He was appointed as the chair of Biotechnology at Sojourner Douglass College while developing the biotechnology curriculum for Baltimore City Public Schools.
Being the multi-faceted individual he is, Dr. Doswell also sits on various non-profit boards. He is an active member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Health Informatics and Information Technology (HIIT) Section, the National Society of Black Engineers, American Telemedicine Association (ATA), and the American Public Health Association (APHA).
Following his favorite quote; the propensity for perfection, Dr. Doswell continues to make the world a better place by using his skills in technology, science, and leadership to volunteer his time to coach and mentor students from disadvantaged and underserved populations to help them gain workforce skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). He has enrolled his student teams in various competitions through the Juxtopia Group. These competitions include; Global Learning X PRIZE, the IBM Watson AI X PRIZE, Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, and the Google Lunar X PRIZE.
Dr. Doswell has several inventions that are patent pending at the U.S. Patent Office. The Juxtopia Group has a patent that helped find a solution to a problem involving Alzheimer’s disease, a solution that proved to be historic. He was quoted saying, “ I am most proud of what I have accomplished utilizing Juxtopia as an intervention to significantly and measurably achieve Juxtopia’s mission of improving human performance and specifically helping minority companies secure funding, patents, and providing wrap-around JUICE services to help companies create products for developing innovations for improving human performance.”
Dr. Doswell’s biggest joy is using his knowledge to grow, motivate, and inspire, the next generation of multidisciplinary STEM leaders in academics, entrepreneurship, and the workplace. He is certainly among the stars who make things happen in Greater Baltimore.
Anthony Tilghman, is an 3x Award-winning Photojournalist, Education advocate, Mentor, and Published Author with years of experience in media, photography, marketing and branding. He is the Winner of the 2020, 2021 & 2023 Dateline award for Excellence in Local Journalism.