Vijay Sanikal is a Product Owner at General Motors, with 15+ years of experience spanning automotive digital product development, CAE, cloud computing, synthetic data, AI, and thermal systems. His work sits at the intersection of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), where he leads initiatives that reduce time-to-market, improve energy efficiency, and optimize vehicle performance using Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) models and AI-driven predictive analytics. Vijay holds a Master’s in Automobile Engineering from Anna University (MIT Campus) and an MBA in Marketing from Indiana University Kelley School of Business, giving him a rare blend of deep technical expertise and commercial perspective. His current focus is applying synthetic data and machine learning to BEV thermal systems—bridging research and real-world deployment while supporting global sustainability goals.