About Creative Creek, LLC

Dr. Clay M. Thompson

History

Creative Creek was founded in 1999 by Dr. Clay M. Thompson to develop and market the MathU calculator for Palm OS.

Biography

Dr. Clay M. Thompson Clay M. Thompson has been doing software development since 1984. Trained as engineer, he has frequently found it necessary to create the tools needed to solve his engineering problems.

"Programming has always been a passion for me even though it has not always been my main job", said Thompson in a recent interview. "My love for programming was first discovered when I received a HP-67 programmable calculator while in high school. MathU Pro is in many ways modeled after that calculator and the other Hewlett-Packard calculators I have enjoyed over the years." An especially conscientious developer, Thompson does extensive testing of his applications before releasing them. He is constantly striving to improve his products. Creating well crafted products is Thompson's passion.

Before founding Creative Creek, LLC, Thompson worked at The MathWorks, Inc. where he authored the Control Toolbox 3.0 upgrade, Image Processing Toolbox 1.0, and oversaw the MATLAB language as the chief language designer for MATLAB 5.0. "I learned a lot about numerical programming while at The MathWorks."

Thompson now develops full time. He splits his time between creating new products, adding new features, and software consulting. Four of his products MathU, MathU Pro, RootM and One Plus One are calculators for the Palm OS and Pocket PC based handheld computers. A fifth product, PocketFly for Palm OS is an electronic airline timetable that can be downloaded for free from United Airlines, American Airlines, Lufthansa and the Star Alliance as well as many other airlines.

Education

1992 Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Thesis topic: Robust Photo-topography by Fusing Shape from Shading and Stereo
1984 Masters of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, CA
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering
1983 Bachelors of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Washington, WA
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering

Interests

Thompson is an avid drummer. He has played the drums since he was young and has most recently been interested in hand drums like the djembe. He and his wife Susan (an artist) host drumming circles at their home in Washington state.

Thompson has been deeply concerned about the environment for all of his life. In fact, a portion of the profits from the sale of his products go to support environmental organizations that promote positive solutions to our environmental problems. "I find it very satisfying to be able to contribute to the causes I care about in this way."