Patrick H. Madden
Associate Professor
Binghamton University
School of Computing
Director, MS Information Systems program
ENGB Q4
P.O. Box 6000
Binghamton, NY 13902

Phone: 607-777-2943
Fax: 607-777-4803

pmadden at ACM dot org
My Optimality Research Group
My main research interest is on optimization for NP-Hard problems, with a focus on problems relevant to VLSI CAD. I also do a bit of work on cryptography and biology-related topics.
I'm the director of the MS Information Systems program, and serve on various committees within the university and the computer science department. I'm the chair of the Watson School graduation committee, which means I have to dress up in a funny outfit and lead the students into commencement ceremonies.
I'm a Past Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group Governing Board, and was a member of the ACM Executive Committee and ACM Council. I'm also a past chair of ACM/SIGDA. Over the years, I've been on the technical program committees, steering committees, and organizing committees of DAC, ICCAD, ASPDAC, DATE, ISPD, and GLSVLSI, as well as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design (TCAD) and ACM Transactions on Design Automation for Electronic Systems (TODAES). I've been a member of ACM since 1986.  In 2015, I received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service.

I'm the faculty advisor for the ACM Student Chapter at Binghamton; our team went to the ICPC finals a few years ago (woot!), just like I did when I was an undergrad (woot woot!).

In my spare time, I hack on iOS apps. Some of them are music related.

Courses
  • Fall 2025
    I'm not teaching any courses this Fall; working on some research, and some papers.
Other Resources
  • Binghamton ACM group
  • Office Hours: Tuesday 10:30--11:30. Drop me an email for the Zoom link, or we can set up a time to meet.

Recent Publications
Recent Seminar Talks
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Algorithms, AI, and Heuristics for VLSI Physical Design (IEEE CASS Rio Grade do Sul Chapter)

VLSI CAD Software

Most of my early research has focused on integrated circuit design. The feng shui placement tool has been quietly under development for a while; it's an unconventional approach to mixed-size placement. We filed a patent recently, and will likely submit something on the work for publication in the near future.

Medical Software
In collaboration with Dr. Joshua Steinberg (a practicing physician), a number of medical reference apps were developed as part of CS441/580. These are intended for physicians, but you can check them out if you like. Kudos to the students who did the hackery! And while it's not medical related, an app from a prior offering of CS441 is available in iTunes; check out Blooper, from Aris Agdere.

Algorithms and Optimization
Check out the Computational Complexity app in the iTunes store; it's a quick introduction to Big-O complexity, and implements a variety of sorting algorithms to drive home the run time impact of using different methods. The app can generate random data for sorting, or data that is either sorted in order, or in reverse order.

Next Generation Cinema
I've collaborated with Prof. Monte McCollum from the Binghamton Cinema Department, to create a hybrid cinema experience. The experimental film "In A Free Sound Field" is meant to be played on a main projection screen, while audience iPhones are synchronized to play video and sound. Want to try it out? The film is available for the Apple TV, and the audience portion is in the iTunes Store. You can also catch the film at a number of film festivals where it is being exhibited.