William R. Cawthorne

Dr. William (Bill) R. Cawthorne received his BSEE (1994), BSCpE (1994), MSEE (1997) and PhD (1999) from West Virginia University.  After graduation, Bill began working for General Motors (as a Project Engineer and then a Senior Contact Engineer) in the Electric Drive Group, a part of the Allison Transmission Powertrain Division.

Bill Continued his work with General Motors focusing on Hybrid Controls, specifically as a Team Leader, Software Strategist and Design Leader, Architect and Software Design Leader, and ultimately as the Engineering Group Manager of Electrification Controls System Engineering and Architecture, and New Products Control Systems Engineering.

Bill is currently the Senior Manager for General Motors Propulsion Systems Global Transmission and Electrification Advanced Engineering.

Bill has been granted 65 US Patents, has filed 81 Records of Invention, 3 Defensive Publications, 3 additional records of Invention in Process, and has 6 published papers.

Bill is also a Board Member of GM Propulsion Systems Electrification Intellectual Property Review Board and serves as the GM Propulsion Systems Electrification Rep to the Powertrain Controller Architecture Team.  He has received the Boss Kettering award for Two-Mode Four-Gen Hybrid Transmission Control System (2007) and Two-Mode Hybrid Core Control system (2005), as well as the Chairman Honors award for Full Size Truck Two-Mode Hybrid Team (2007).

Bill has worked with WVU’s EcoCAR project, and served as the Team Mentor since 2014.  Bill can be found on campus regularly, working with the student competition team.  Bill’s contribution to the WVU EcoCar project has been invaluable.