David Thomson, Founder & Director of Engineering

Original Code Consulting was founded as a National Instruments Alliance Member by David Thomson in 1997. For many years, David grew OCC as a side business while also holding full-time jobs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (joint with the University of Colorado) and then later at Droplet Measurement Technologies. In 2013, OCC became a full-time endeavor, and in 2015, it expanded by bringing Ted Anderson on to the OCC team. Dave also has a list of publications available as well as a Google Scholar profile.

Certifications

Certified LabVIEW Architect
Certified Embedded Systems Developer
Certified Instrument Driver Developer
Charter Member of the LabVIEW Champions

In 2001, David became a Certified LabVIEW Developer, then a Certified LabVIEW Architect in 2006. He obtained the Certified Embedded Systems Developer status in 2013. Originally started as a part-time side business, OCC has since transitioned into a full-time consultancy, focused on creating high quality software for scientific, R&D, commercial, and industrial customers.

David began using LabVIEW in 1992, with version 2.0 on the Mac. At the time, he was employed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a research scientist working in the field of atmospheric chemistry of aerosol particles. By 1997, he began taking on outside projects. David's background as a physicist led him to focus his consulting efforts on scientific and R&D settings, and he has been especially active in the atmospheric measurements community. After spending many years at NOAA, David moved to the commercial world and took a job at a local tech company that also built atmospheric instrumentation. After heading up the software department there for several years, he became the Director of Engineering, and coordinated the development of a wide range of hardware and software products. More recently, David decided to make his consulting company his full-time effort, allowing OCC to take on a wider range of projects.

David has assisted National Instruments and the LabVIEW community in many ways over the years. He was a beta tester for LabVIEW version 5.0, 5.2, 6.0, 6.1, 7.0, 7.1, 8.0, 8.20, and 2011, as well as for several add-on toolkits and National Instruments hardware products. Several years ago he participated in the Lego Mindstorms Developer Program, acting as a beta tester for the Mindstorms NTX hardware and software, which is based on LabVIEW. David provided NI with test data for the performance of PXI, Compact FieldPoint, and CompactRIO hardware operating at high altitudes/low pressures. More recently, he participated in a development effort for the myRIO product and released a program on the NI Tools Network in conjunction with NI's debut of a myRIO section on the Tools Network.

David has been involved with Colorado LabVIEW user groups for many years, and since mid-2004, has been helping to organize a user group for advanced LabVIEW programmers in Colorado. The group is known as ALARM (Advanced LabVIEW Architects of the Rocky Mountains) and meets bi-monthly, alternating between Golden and Boulder, Colorado. (Visit the ALARM website for information about future meetings.) He also supports the LabVIEW community through online forums and participation in numerous LabVIEW events. In 2010, he was one of three presenters at the first CLA (Certified LabVIEW Architects) Summit in Austin, Texas, and in 2012, he helped bring this type of Summit to the local region by serving as the chairman for the first CLD (Certified LabVIEW Developers) Summit in Denver, Colorado.

When National Instruments created the LabVIEW Champions program in 2004 to recognize those who have championed LabVIEW within its community of users, David was selected as one of the charter members. In addition to recognizing leaders in the LabVIEW community, this program provides valuable feedback to National Instruments from a group of dedicated LabVIEW users.