Sam Madden

Sam Madden is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, leading the Data Systems Group (DSG) and the Data Science and AI Lab (DSAIL). He holds the MIT College of Computing Distinguished Professor title. Madden's research focuses on database systems, including learned database systems, query processing, and data management for video and sensor networks. He received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley (2003) and MEng/BS from MIT (1999).

His work spans systems for sensor networks (TinyDB), columnar databases (C-Store), and video analytics (VaaS). Notable projects include Starling (cloud query optimization), BRAD (cloud data infrastructure), and Aurum (data discovery). Madden has advised numerous students and received prestigious awards like the ACM Fellow (2020) and SIGMOD Codd Innovations Award (2024).

• Education:
  • Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (2003)
  • M.Eng., MIT (1999)
  • B.S., MIT (1999)
• Awards:
  • MIT TR35 (2005)
  • SIGMOD Test of Time Award (2013, 2017)
  • ACM Fellow (2020)
• Teaching: Courses include Database Systems, Software Systems for Data Science, and Computer Systems.
• Companies: Co-founder of Vertica (acquired by HP), Chief Scientist at Cambridge Mobile Telematics.