Allison Kotewicz joined the Colorado State University EcoCAR 2 team as the Energy Storage Systems project manager during her senior year as a mechanical engineering student.
“The EcoCAR 2 project was a true capstone to my academic career, providing me with challenges in project management, advanced technologies, and community relations,” she said.
Involvement in EcoCAR 2 helped Kotewicz to obtain a position with Rockwell Automation as an account manager in their Sales Engineering Training Program. This role requires her to interface with a wide variety of manufacturing companies, update them about the company’s latest automation technologies, manage potential sales opportunities and build relationships with current and prospective clientele. Since the start of her job, she was promoted to Channel Business Development at Rockwell.
Kotewicz proudly displays the team’s “Regenerate!” kit used to teach youth about the process and benefits of regenerative braking at the Year 2 Final Competition in San Diego, CA.“I think that the complexities of building our vehicle and interfacing all the different systems in Year Two of EcoCAR is what really has translated into my core career skills. So much communication had to happen to make our car a reality, and that’s the same story for everything I’m seeing in my day-to-day at Rockwell Automation.”
Kotewicz’s strong interpersonal skills and willingness to collaborate with team members was a major help during Year Two. She took time from her busy schedule to support the communications team by attending community outreach events, which she credits as one of the main reasons she found a career in sales engineering.
“With all of the outreach events I was participating in for EcoCAR, I felt that sales engineering would be a comfortable transition—and it has been great! I am really enjoying my job and thankful that I got to develop and improve so many valuable skills as a project manager for EcoCAR 2.”
