Meet Will Cotter!

Video Transcript

Audrey Rabick 0:16
Hello, everyone, I'm Audrey Rabick here with my mentor Will Cotter to talk a little bit about Cohort 9's very exciting project Envision 2040. Will, thank you so much for making the time for me today.

Will Cotter 0:14
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Audrey Rabick 0:16
Wonderful. So let's dive right in and talk about why you feel that this project and Envision 2040 is important.

Will Cotter 0:25
Yeah, that's great question. Envision 2040 is really important for two facets. The first one is that we know that 2040 is going to look a lot different than it does right now. And the second is, how can we be able to change that? And how can we be able to change what 2040 will look like and change the path to make it both a more efficient and safe path moving forward? After the COVID-19 pandemic, it really shifted everybody's viewpoints, on life and routine. And with that, everything else will shift to so we want to take a proactive approach at envisioning what that will be. And we want to also try to change that image for the better.

Audrey Rabick 1:06
Awesome, those are two really big topics. Could you talk a little bit more on some specific insights that meant a lot to you?

Will Cotter 1:14
Yeah, sure. Since I've been here in Buffalo co-oping, I've actually been able to see firsthand about how COVID-19 has changed a lot of business practices and how not only has it changed the immediate, but now that we've gotten more into it, we're able to see how life is changing about how companies are changing more so for the future, that is not just the lockdowns, but things are going more much more online, the use of Microsoft team meetings are much more prevalent. And we're only going to see that life is going to become more of not machines, replacing humans. But how humans react to machines taking over these roles, how are we able to use machines to be more efficient? And with that, how are we able to see the human side of it as well? How are we able to make sure that we stay connected with people, it's all really important topics that is really important about Envision 2040 in this project?

Audrey Rabick 2:15
That sounds delightful. Um, so let's let's hone it in a little bit more with what you think you're going to do to prepare for that future that's discussed in Envision 2040?

Will Cotter 2:29
Great question. Preparing for the future is not an easy question. And it's not an easy thought, considering that with the future comes the idea of uncertainty. But with uncertainty comes opportunity. And with that being said, opportunity is really important, because we want to be able to not just continue what what we have known and what businesses have known but we want to be able to look at our generation, and with other generations be able to push the envelope and make a make our industries as engineers as computer scientists, even more, even more technologically sound and even more efficient, even more safe and the ways that we can. And so for me preparing for that I've actually been able to with the position I have right now, but also been able to see how everything is changing at a different rate. Everything is changing much quicker. Everything is everything moves faster. Now that we've gone through that pandemic, so for me, I would say trying to grasp trying to just observe and deposit everything after the COVID-19 pandemic has been huge.

Audrey Rabick 3:42
Excellent, great answer. Great response. Thanks again for meeting with me and thanks to everyone watching. I am so excited to see what the projects brings to us.

Will Cotter 3:53
As am I, thank you for having me.