The VMJR Companies is an association of commercial construction companies that specialize in a wide range of building projects for commercial, institutional, retail, hospitality and heavy civil and industrial clients, based in Glen Falls, New York. They are a leader in various construction delivery systems and truly view themselves as a Collaborative Construction Service. The thing that impresses me most about Vic Macri and his team at VMJR is their eagerness to jump into unique design and construction challenges and tackle them in a way that is open minded, collaborative and tenacious. www.vmjrcompanies.com/

Rifenburg Construction is a heavy civil, site, highway and infrastructure construction company based in Troy that completes $90M in projects annually for municipalities, state agencies, and private companies including industrial sites, commercial and residential developments, office parks, and more. Whenever there's a big project and there's a mountain to move - Rifenburg always seems to be the contractor that the industry turns to to make it happen. www.rifenburg.com

Dimension is a Capital District supplier and fabricator of concrete reinforcing steel and related materials that has been serving the construction industry throughout the region since 1984. They have been involved in most of the large infrastructure projects on the eastern seaboard because we enjoy challenges and advancing the capabilities of the concrete construction industry. I know that my father spends more time at Dimension each week than he does relaxing by a fire. I know how much he values the team at Dimension - I hear about it every week.  https://www.dimensionfabricators.com/

Techno Metal Post of Albany was founded by Matt and Will Reagan to bring helical pile foundation, stabilization and building technology to New York's Capital District commercial, industrial, residential and municipal/government projects. I (Mike Baron) also want to vouch for Matt and Will. They really did a great job on a tricky foundation project and really made working with them as an engineer very easy. Ask me how they bent over backwards to give the best end product for a municipal client at the event and I'll tell you the story. They are a solid team.  https://www.technometalpost.com/en-US/dealer/techno-metal-post-albany/

Phil Cohen is a native Vermonter who has devoted years to fine-tuning his craft by playing countless house shows and even spending a year in the subway stations of NYC while he was in nursing school. All of his hard work culminated in April 2014 with the release of his first full length studio album, Before I Go, which is available on iTunes and Bandcamp. My sister turned me onto Phil a few years ago and he's just one of those talents -- that humble, raw talent - that is just great to have on the headphones all day. Well - he's coming up from Brooklyn so you can hear why. www.philcohenmusic.com

Expertise Project recycles professional expertise.

Today's professionals have already figured out how to remember and deploy their expertise to solve real problems to keep our civilization running. But they're busy, and most of that insight never makes it back to students. We need to find ways to extract those insights one story at a time in a way that is convenient for professionals - and then compile them together for students and educators.

EP is instigated by Mike Baron, a professional civil structural engineer at the Chazen Companies, who is the son of a contractor, loves working with architects, talking with educators and mentoring students. This project is an effort to pull that all together.