At a glance
Alfred State College and the Southern Tier hold a special spot in Steven Montgomery's heart.
Steven Montgomery, ’94, wants current and future Alfred State students to be trained with top notch technology so they can enter their career on the right foot.
Montgomery grew up in nearby Canisteo and enrolled in the architectural engineering program at ASC in 1990 thinking he wanted to be an architect. His experiences in a concrete class during his time in Alfred led him to his current career.
“Architectural engineering gave me that broad view into not just architecture but in the construction side of things. I quickly discovered I did not want to be an architect, but I really liked the building side of it."
A trip to Baltimore, MD to visit a friend led to his career in construction. While his friend was at work, Montgomery went looking for a job. He found a geotechnical firm hiring people to do concrete and structural testing. He enjoyed learning those subjects while at Alfred State and took the job and has lived in the area ever since.
The knowledge he learned in his first job led him to a position with a large demolition contractor as an estimator and assistant project manager. That job led to his next opportunity with a large Baltimore-based construction management firm as an assistant project manager.
During that time, project management software started to replace spreadsheets, and Montgomery became the "software guy" for his company. This move has changed his career.
"I kept making steps. I kept growing my real-world experience and knowledge under extraordinarily successful people in the construction industry. I knew I wanted to get to a high level in my career.”
In 2001, Steve was presented with an opportunity to leave construction management yet leverage his experience as a consultant and trainer for Meridian Systems Prolog. He spent the next fifteen years traveling the world, helping hundreds of construction firms evolve their businesses with the help of project management software. Through the acquisition of Meridian, Montgomery was introduced to Trimble and a Trimble partner, Keystone Precision Solutions. In 2016, he partnered with the owners of Keystone to found BuildingPoint Northeast.
BuildingPoint Northeast, a Trimble partner, focuses on a variety of technology solutions for the construction industry. Today, BuildingPoint Northeast has over twelve hundred customers from Maryland to Connecticut and made just under six million dollars in revenue in 2021.
"I have always felt that I could give back to the college. We are in a time where skilled labor is becoming harder to find, and construction firms are trying to keep up with the growth of technology. The timing is perfect to introduce and educate students on technology. I want to get Trimble's industry-leading technology into the Alfred curriculum and have a hand in preparing tomorrow's workforce with the knowledge to be successful.”
This fall, Montgomery, CEO of BuildingPoint Northeast, and his partner George Allport Jr., President of Keystone Precision along with Kenneth Fronheiser, Director of Strategic Integration and Technology at Keystone, and Mark Calvi, Certified Trainer of Trimble Field Solutions came to campus this fall to engage current students and show them the latest technology their companies use in the field.
The group demonstrated the capabilities of the Trimble SX10, that through this partnership will be purchased to allow current and future students at Alfred State to learn on this state-of-the art equipment. Along with the SX10, the college has a Trimble T100 tablet which brings the advantages of fast computing power and a large screen to the field. The Trimble Business Center with a Scanning Module was also donated.
Montgomery also showed current students and staff the capabilities of Spot the robotic dog, a Boston Dynamics product, with a Trimble X7 Laser Scanner. Spot climbed the stairs of the lecture hall within the Engineering Building and scanned and measured the room in minutes.
“Our new Training and Innovation Partnership with BuildingPoint Northeast and Keystone Precision Solutions is an alliance that will have a profound impact on many students across several programs,” commented Dean of SAMET John Williams. “Students and faculty will now have access to the latest surveying and 3-D scanning technology, and we look forward to integrating the equipment into our laboratories and projects. Our industry partners will also work with everyone to provide training, informational sessions, and support. This relationship is game changing and will create several benefits for all.”
This summer at the annual Alfred State Golf Tournament, Montgomery sponsored and showed the capabilities of the Trimble Robotic Total Station. On hole #7 at the Wellsville Country Club, he quickly calculated the distance of drives to determine the winner of the longest drive competition.
"It is a fun way to tell the golfers to the sixteenth of an inch how far they drove the ball. It shows our technology in a way that people can relate to."
Montgomery remembers his walks from the MacKenzie Complex to class and seeing students outside learning hands-on with their instruments. He now wants to make a difference by giving Alfred State students the technology to be even more prepared to join the workforce.
“I hear companies all over the country say that they want to use technology, but they do not have the right people to do so. That reinforces in my mind that we need to teach college kids this technology."