Publications

Books

2012 Variation Book 2009 Synthesis Book 2010 GPTP book 2009 GPTP book

T. McConaghy, K. Breen, J. Dyck, and A. Gupta.  Variation-Aware Design of Custom Integrated Circuits: A Hands-on Field Guide.  Springer, 2012. [Amazon][Springer]

T. McConaghy, P. Palmers, P. Gao, M. Steyaert, and G.G.E. Gielen.  Variation-Aware Analog Structural Synthesis: A Computational Intelligence Approach.  Springer, 2009, ISBN 978-9048129058. [Amazon][Springer]

T. McConaghy.  Variation-aware structural synthesis and knowledge extraction of analog circuits.  PhD thesis, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, November 2008, ISBN 978-9056829872.  (Winner, 2009 EDAA Outstanding Dissertation Award)  [Abstract txt] [Full text pdf]

R. Riolo, T. McConaghy, and E. Vladislavleva, Editors. Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VIII (Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Series). Springer, 2010. [Amazon][Springer]

R. Riolo, U.-M. O’Reilly, and T. McConaghy, Editors. Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VII (Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Series). Springer, 2009, ISBN 978-1441916259. [Amazon][Springer]

Selected Papers

Ocean Protocol team, "Ocean Protocol: Tools for the Web3 Data Economy", Ocean Whitepaper V3. Oct 29, 2020 [pdf]. V2 Version Mar 5, 2019 [pdf]. V1 Version Mar 26, 2018 [pdf].

T. McConaghy et al, BigchainDB: A Scalable Blockchain Database, BigchainDB whitepaper, www.bigchaindb.com. First public release Feb 10, 2016

T. McConaghy and D. Holtzman, Towards an Ownership Layer for the Internet, ascribe whitepaper v1.03, June 24, 2015 [pdf]

T. McConaghy et al, Trustworthy genetic programming-based synthesis of analog circuit topologies using hierarchical domain-specific building blocks, IEEE Trans. Evolutionary Computation 15(4), Aug. 2011, pp. 557-570. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, FFX: fast, scalable, deterministic symbolic regression technology, Genetic Programming Theory and Practice IX, Edited by R. Riolo, E. Vladislavleva, and J. Moore, Springer, 2011 (invited paper). [paper][slides] [patent] [code]

T. McConaghy and G.G.E. Gielen, Template-free symbolic performance modeling of analog circuits via canonical form functions and genetic programming, IEEE Trans. CAD 28(8), Aug. 2009, pp. 1162–1175. [PDF]

T. McConaghy et al, Automated extraction of expert knowledge in analog topology selection and sizing, in Proc. Intern. Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), San Jose, November 2008. [PDF]

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

T. McConaghy et al, "BigchainDB: A Scalable Blockchain Database," BigchainDB whitepaper, www.bigchaindb.com, Feb, 2016 [link]

T. McConaghy and D. Holtzman, "Towards an Ownership Layer for the Internet", ascribe whitepaper v1.03, June 24, 2015 [pdf]

I. Guerra-Gomez, T. McConaghy, and E. Tlelo-Cuatle, Operating-point driven formulation for analog computer-aided design, Analog Circuits and Signal Processing, Springer, New York, Dec. 2012. [PDF

T. McConaghy, P. Palmers, M. Steyaert, and G.G.E. Gielen, Trustworthy genetic programming-based synthesis of analog circuit topologies using hierarchical domain-specific building blocks, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 15(4), Aug. 2011, pp. 557-570. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, FFX: fast, scalable, deterministic symbolic regression technology, Genetic Programming Theory and Practice IX, Edited by R. Riolo, E. Vladislavleva, and J. Moore, Springer, 2011 (invited paper). [paper] [slides] [patent] [code]

T. McConaghy, Symbolic density models of one-in-a-billion statistical tails via importance sampling and genetic programming, Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VIII, Edited by R. Riolo, T. McConaghy, and E. Vladislavleva, Springer, 2010 (invited paper). [PDF] [slides]

T. McConaghy, E. Vladislavleva, and R. Riolo, Genetic programming theory and practice 2010: an introduction, Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VIII, Edited by R. Riolo, T. McConaghy, and E. Vladislavleva, Springer, 2010. [PDF]

T. McConaghy and G.G.E. Gielen, Globally reliable variation-aware sizing of analog integrated circuits via response surfaces and structural homotopy, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design 28(11), Nov. 2009, pp. 1627-1640.  [PDF]

T. McConaghy, P. Palmers, G.G.E. Gielen, and M. Steyaert, Variation-aware structural synthesis of analog circuits via hierarchical building blocks and structural homotopy, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design 28(9), Sept. 2009, pp. 1281–1294. [PDF]

T. McConaghy and G.G.E. Gielen, Template-free symbolic performance modeling of analog circuits via canonical form functions and genetic programming, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design 28(8), Aug. 2009, pp. 1162–1175. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, Latent variable symbolic regression for high-dimensional inputs, Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VII, Edited by R. Riolo, U.-M. O’Reilly, and T. McConaghy, Springer, 2009 (invited paper). [PDF]

U.-M. O’Reilly, T. McConaghy and R. Riolo, GPTP 2009: An Example of Evolvability, in Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VII, Edited by R. Riolo, U.-M. O’Reilly, and T. McConaghy, Springer, 2009. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, P. Palmers, G.G.E. Gielen, and M. Steyaert, Automated extraction of expert domain knowledge from genetic programming synthesis results, in Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VI, Edited by R. Riolo and B. Worzel, Springer, 2008 (invited paper). [PDF]

T. McConaghy, P. Palmers, G.G.E. Gielen, and M. Steyaert, Genetic programming with reuse of known designs, in Genetic Programming Theory and Practice V, Edited by R. Riolo and B. Worzel, Chapter 10, Springer, 2007 (invited paper). [PDF]

T.  McConaghy, G. G. E. Gielen, Genetic programming in industrial analog CAD: applications and challenges, Genetic Programming Theory and Practice III, Edited by Tina Yu and Bill Worzel, Chapter 19, Springer, 2005 (invited paper). [PDF]

Trent McConaghy, Henry Leung, Éloi Bosse, and Vinay Varadan, “Classification of audio radar signals using radial basis function neural networks”, in IEEE Transactions Instrumentation and Measurement, 52(6), pp. 1771–1779, Dec 2003. [PDF]

Articles in Refereed Conference Proceedings

D. De Jonghe, E. Maricau, G. Gielen, T. McConaghy, B. Tasic, and H. Stratigopoulos, Advances in Variation-Aware Modeling, Verification, and Testing of Analog ICs, Proc. Design Automation and Test Europe (DATE), 2012 [PDF]

T. McConaghy, High-dimensional statistical modeling and analysis of custom integrated circuits, Proc. Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), San Jose, September 2011. (Invited paper) [PDF] [slides]

I. Guerra-Gomez, E. Tlelo-Cuautle, Luis G. de la Fraga, T. McConaghy, and G.G.E. Gielen, Sizing mixed-mode circuits by multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, Proc. IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), 2010. [PDF]

I. Guerra-Gomez, E. Tlelo-Cuautle, T. McConaghy, and G.G.E. Gielen, Decomposition-based multi-objective optimization of second-generation current conveyors, Proc. IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), 2009.

I. Guerra-Gomez, E. Tlelo-Cuautle, T. McConaghy, and G.G.E. Gielen, Optimizing current conveyors by evolutionary algorithms including differential evolution, Proc. IEEE Intern. Conf. on Electronics Circuits and Systems (ICECS), 2009. [PDF]

P. Palmers, T. McConaghy, M. Steyaert, and G.G.E. Gielen, Massively multi-topology sizing of analog integrated circuits, in Proc. Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), March 2009. [PDF]

J. Loeckx, T. Deman, T. McConaghy, and G.G.E. Gielen, A novel EMI-immune Current Mirror Topology obtained by Genetic Evolution, in Proc. Conf. in Electro Magnetic Compatibility (EMC), Zurich, 2009.

P. Gao, T. McConaghy, and G.G.E. Gielen, ISCLEs: Importance sampled circuit learning ensembles for robust analog IC design, in Proc. Intern. Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), San Jose, November 2008. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, P. Palmers, G.G.E. Gielen, and M. Steyaert, Automated extraction of expert knowledge in analog topology selection and sizing, in Proc. Intern. Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), San Jose, November 2008. [PDF]

P. Gao, T. McConaghy, and G.G.E. Gielen, ISCLEs: Importance sampled circuit learning ensembles for trustworthy analog circuit topology synthesis, in Proc. Intern. Conference on Evolvable Systems (ICES), Prague, CZ, pp. 11-21, September 2008. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, P. Palmers, G.G.E. Gielen, and M. Steyaert, Simultaneous multi-topology multi-objective sizing across thousands of analog circuit topologies, in Proc. Design Automation Conference (DAC), pp. 944–947, June 2007. [PDF]

G. Gielen, T. Eeckelaert, E. Martens, T. McConaghy, Automated synthesis of complex analog circuits, in Proc. European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD), 2007.

T. McConaghy, G. G. E. Gielen, Double-strength CAFFEINE: fast template-free symbolic modeling of analog circuits via implicit canonical form functions and explicit Introns, in Proc. Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), pp. 269-274, 2006. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, G. G. E. Gielen: Canonical form functions as a simple means for genetic programming to evolve human-interpretable functions, in Proc. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), pp. 855-862, 2006. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, G. G. E. Gielen, Automation in mixed-signal design: challenges and solutions in the wake of the nano era, in Proc. Intern. Conf. on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 2006, pp. 461-463. (Invited paper) [PDF]

T. McConaghy, G. G. E. Gielen, Analysis of simulation-driven numerical performance modeling techniques for application to analog circuit optimization, in Proc. IEEE Intern. Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), May 23-26, 2005. [PDF]

T. McConaghy, T. Eeckelaert, G. G. E. Gielen, CAFFEINE: template-free symbolic model generation of analog circuits via canonical form functions and genetic programming, in Proc. Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), pp. 1070-1075, March 7-11, 2005 (nominated for best paper). [PDF]

T. McConaghy, T. Eeckelaert, G. G. E. Gielen, CAFFEINE: template-free symbolic model generation of analog circuits via canonical form functions and genetic programming, in European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC), September 12-15, 2005. [PDF]

T. Eeckelaert, T. McConaghy, G. G. E. Gielen, Efficient multi-objective synthesis of analog circuits using hierarchical pareto-Optimal performance hypersurfaces, in Proc. Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), March 7-11, 2005.

T. McConaghy, G. G. E. Gielen, IBMG: Interpretable behavioral model generator for nonlinear analog circuits via canonical form functions and genetic programming, in Proc. IEEE Intern. Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), May 23-26, 2005. [PDF]

G. G. E. Gielen, T. McConaghy, T. Eeckelaert, Performance space modeling for hierarchical synthesis of analog integrated circuits, in Proc. Design Automation Conference (DAC), pp. 881-886, June 13-17, 2005. [PDF]

J. Liang, T. McConaghy, A. Kochlan, T. Pham, and G. Hertz, Intelligent systems for analog circuit design automation: a survey, in Proc. of World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando, Florida, FL, 2001.

T. McConaghy, H. Leung, and V. Varadan, Functional reconstruction of dynamical systems from time series using genetic programming, in Proc. Conf. IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON), volume 3, pp. 2031–2034, Nagoya, 2000.

T. McConaghy and H. Leung, Genetic programming with least squares for fast, precise modeling of polynomial time series, in J.R. Koza, Ed., Late Breaking Papers at the Genetic Programming Conf., Madison, WI, 1998.

Patents

USPTO search here

1 8,612,908 Full-Text Method and system for verification of electrical circuit designs at process, voltage, and temperature corners
2 8,589,138 Full-Text On-the-fly improvement of certainty of statistical estimates in statistical design, with corresponding visual feedback
3 8,494,670 Full-Text Monte-Carlo based accurate corner extraction
4 8,443,329 Full-Text Trustworthy structural synthesis and expert knowledge extraction with application to analog circuit design
5 8,332,188 Full-Text Modeling of systems using canonical form functions and symbolic regression
6 8,281,270 Full-Text Method and system for proximity-aware circuit design
7 8,074,189 Full-Text Pruning-based variation-aware design
8 8,024,682 Full-Text Global statistical optimization, characterization, and design
9 8,006,220 Full-Text Model-building optimization
10 7,761,834 Full-Text Interactive schematic for use in analog, mixed-signal, and custom digital circuit design
11 7,707,533 Full-Text Data-mining-based knowledge extraction and visualization of analog/mixed-signal/custom digital circuit design flow
12 7,689,952 Full-Text System and method for determining and visualizing tradeoffs between yield and performance in electrical circuit designs
13 7,089,163 Full-Text Smooth operators in optimization of structures
14 6,968,517 Full-Text Method of interactive optimization in circuit design
15 6,910,192 Full-Text Method of robust technology design using rational robust optimization
16 6,859,914 Full-Text Smooth operators in optimization of circuit structures
17 6,807,652 Full-Text Method of robust semiconductor circuit products design using rational robust optimization

Professional Community

Participant, Creative Commons Global Summit, Seoul, Korea, Oct 14-17, 2015 [link]

Member of IP Working Group, Blockchain Workshop, Hong Kong, Oct 11, 2015 [link]

Organizer of "Singularity Meets Self Improvement" meetup, Berlin, Germany, 2013-present [link]

Co-organizer of "Berlin Machine Learning Group", Berlin, Germany, 2015-present [link]

Member of Editorial Board, Journal of Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines (GPEM), 2012-present

Chair of Exhibits Committee, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), 2012-2014. Member of Exhibits Committee, CICC, 2011-2014

Member of "Simulation and Modeling" Technical Program Committee, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), 2011-2014

Co-organizer of "Analog Computer-Aided Design" 2013 workshop, International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), November 2013

Variation / Analog Modeling Session Chair, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), Sept, 2013

Analog CAD Session Chair, Design Automation Conference (DAC), June, 2013

Co-organizer of "Analog Computer-Aided Design" 2012 workshop, International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), November 2012

Simulation & Modeling Session Chair, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), September, 2012

Analog CAD Session Chair, Design Automation Conference (DAC), June, 2012

Co-organizer of BrainTalks UBC, 2011-2012.  (BrainTalks hosts monthly presentations by leading neuroscientists and related experts.)

Analog CAD Session Chair, Design Automation Conference (DAC), June, 2011

Co-organizer of “Genetic and Programming Theory and Practice” 2010 workshop, Ann Arbor, MI, May 2010.

Co-organizer of “Genetic and Programming Theory and Practice” 2009 workshop, Ann Arbor, MI, May 2009.

Reviewer for: IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design (TCAD), ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES), IEE Electronics Letters, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (TEVC), MIT Press Evolutionary Computation, Journal of Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines (GPEM)

Program Commitee Member for: Design Automation Conference (DAC) (expert reviewer), IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), Design Automation and Test Europe (DATE), Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), NASA/DoD Conference on Adaptive Systems (AHS), International Conference on Evolvable Systems (ICES), IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC)

Lecturer for “Analog Computer-Aided Design” laboratory classes, K.U. Leuven,
Belgium, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.

IEEE member / student member, 1995-2014

Magazine Articles & More

T. McConaghy, "AI for Good, At Scale?", Big Picture Editorial, newcities.org [link]

T. McConaghy, "Solido brainiac on CICC '14 in San Jose, CA", Dec 12, 2014, deepchip.com [link]

Interview with T. McConaghy, "Are we all 'natural born cyborgs?'", Online Educa Berlin News Portal, October, 2014, online-educa.com [external link] [link]

T. McConaghy, "ICCAD '13 trip report 10 days before the upcoming ICCAD '14", Oct 24, 2014, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Solido brainiac on CICC '13 analog, memory, FinFET, variation", Nov 15, 2013, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Solido brainiac on user questions, and MunEDA WCD questions", Oct 15, 2013, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy (via D.  Nenni), "High-Sigma Standard Cell Optimization", Oct 3, 2013, semiwiki.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "DAC custom design trip report", July 11, 2013, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Solido brainiac rebukes Cadence's doubts of Solido 6-sigma claims," May 16, 2013, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Solido brainiac ICCAD Analog CAD Workshop Trip Report," Feb, 2013, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "High yield, high performance memory design," EETimes, Nov 5, 2012, eetimes.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Solido brainiac explains how Solido 6 sigma yield claims work," Nov 1, 2012, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Solido brainiac trip report on Custom Integrated Circuits Conference," Oct 18, 2012, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "A survey of high-sigma Monte Carlo analysis approaches", March 4, 2012, semiwiki.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Custom Integrated Circuits Conference trip report", Jan 26, 2012, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "PVT and statistical design in nanometer process geometries", Sept 18, 2011, semiwiki.com [link]

T. McConaghy, "Design Automation and Test Europe 2011 trip report", March 25, 2011, deepchip.com [link]

T. McConaghy, “Using Synthesis in the analog design flow”, EDN, Jan 24, 2002, EDN.com [link]

T. McConaghy, “Intelligent systems solutions for analog synthesis”, Integrated Communications Design, Penwell, January, 2002

T. McConaghy, “Forget digital, think analog”, Electronic News, Oct 28, 2002

T. McConaghy, "Who is responsible for automatically engineered designs?", University of Saskatchewan, 1999 [link]