LabVIEW Champions Directory
Member Profile - Steen Schmidt
Home:
Hinnerup (a suburb to Aarhus), Denmark.
Programming Languages:
LabVIEW and TestStand (if you can call that a programming language).
I have been programming in C, C++, Java, VB, native ARM, and different assembly languages. I last touched an ordinary compiler in 2009 I think, so now it’s LabVIEW only 🙂
Certification:
CLA, CTA & CLED.
Used LabVIEW Since:
I saw LabVIEW (4.1 I think) for the first time around '97-'98.
Applications Areas:
All sorts of applications, probably about 80% is on Real-Time and FPGA. Typical stuff is HIL simulators, big DAQ systems (multiple controllers, 1,000+ channels), and using TestStand outside prodution testing (as a general sequencer for software verification or simulation environment preparation for instance).
Biography:
I grew up in the Aarhus area and hadn't much exposure to technology in my family really. Until 1997 I was sure I was going to be a jet fighter pilot - had all the papers ready, pre-med checks and all. I had done some programming at that time, and had become rather good at it, but I didn't know you could make a living of being a programmer. I hadn't ever met one that did, I think?
Then a buddy of mine began studying to Electrical Engineer, and he told me that was very cool. Engineer? I thought that was something about digging in mud and building bridges (see how enlightened I was?). Ok, I checked it out, and decided to give that a go. And lo and behold, EEs do programming as well as electronics. Ok, I might be decent at this anyway. I already liked math and physics, so that was shaped for me. While doing the EE I worked as trainee at Denmark's at that time largest NI integrator (DSE). I also did my final project at DSE, and then held a few jobs over the next years at different development houses - doing all sorts of stuff, military, bagage handling equipment, and wind turbine controllers. Check my LinkedIn profile if you wish to know more details.
In 2006 I started work at small NI integrator (CIM), which when I left it in 2012 had grown into the biggest NI Alliance Partner in Denmark, and a competitor in the Northern Region of Europe. With CIM I executed more than a 100 LabVIEW and TestStand projects, some small, but several of considerable size (5-6 developers and 4-5,000 man-hours). I was awarded for some of the achievements, and at CIM I met the NI certification program (didn't know it existed before that actually). In a year and a half I did the CLAD, the CLD, the CTD, the CLA, and then the CTA.
In 2012 I felt I couldn't grow more with CIM and had to do something else. Find a place that had the same quality standards as I have. I couldn't join JKI (I can't move to the States just now), so I had to start my own (no pun intended, there are several great LabVIEW places - most of them in the States though). That became GPower - the GPower brand actually existed before 2012, as I had previously released toolsets on the LV Tools Network under that brand. So here I am, hiring employees and growing the business.
User Groups:
We're in the process of starting an LVOOP user group here in Denmark. Since I've spent so much of my time working with NI Alliance Partners I wasn't allowed to spend time on user groups and other silly stuff like that. We should go consult some customers! That's not a GPower philosophy I might add.
Discussion Groups:
A little bit of everything (NI Discussion Groups and Lava).
Websites:
