2008 Walston Chubb Award for Innovation
Patrick Usoro is a Technical Fellow at the General Motors R&D Center in Warren, Michigan. He joined GM R&D in 1985 and has led technical innovations in power train dynamics and control, transmission mechanism synthesis, advanced hybrid systems, mechatronics, and mechamatronics - a GM key strategic technology area that he initiated. His focus is on innovative technologies to enhance function, performance, efficiency and cost of future vehicle systems. He holds more than 160 U.S. patents and has published more than 50 technical papers and reports. Many of his innovations have been implemented on GM products and have earned him the GM R&D Master Inventor Platinum Award, Campbell Award for Outstanding Contributions to Science and McCuen Special Achievement Awards for Extraordinary Technical Accomplishments. His other honors include the GM Chairman's Best-of-the-Best Honors award for development of an innovative magneto-rheological fluid fan drive; and GM "Boss" Kettering top technical honor awards for an active driveline damping system and for pioneering work in mechanisms synthesis which led to the generation of novel multi-speed transmissions, including GM's six-speed front-wheel-drive automatic transmission that offers significant cost and vehicle fuel economy benefits. In 1996 he was recognized as the U.S. Black Engineer of the Year for outstanding technical contributions. Usoro is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Society of Automotive Engineers and Sigma Xi. He served as chairman of the ASME Energy Systems Committee and as associate editor of the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurements and Control. He was appointed to the National Science Foundation Committee of Visitors for the Dynamic Systems and Control program. Since 2004 he has served as a commissioner of the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the body that accredits engineering programs in universities across the U.S. and globally.