Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes has a long and varied career in the engineering and technology fields. Billy began their career in 1998 as a Technologist at Joy Global Inc., where they were responsible for the electrical design and development engineering of battery-powered equipment, as well as developing performance specifications and performance calculations for battery-powered equipment. In 2015, they joined Local Motors as a Director of Programs Research and Development, where they jump-started product development of autonomous electric vehicles and resolved manufacturing issues through the creation of award-winning designs and processes. Billy also served as an Electric Vehicle Systems Engineer, conducting testing of autonomous electric vehicles for the evaluation of new components/sub-systems for extreme applications. In 2020, they became the Sr. Technology Director of the Knoxville Advanced Manufacturing team at Hackrod, Inc., where they worked closely with the Ground Vehicle System Center’s (GVSC) and National Center for Manufacturing Science (NCMS) Additive Manufacturing team to create a Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV).

Billy Hughes attended the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Knoxville, TN.