Seminar Cryptology and Privacy - Mathematical Foundations of Cryptography (WS 2024/25)

Course Number 705103 | Wintersemester 2024/25

Content

Mathematics is arguably the backbone of entire field of cryptography. It is the language we use when describing our constructions, it is the tool we use when proving the strength of those constructions and it is the fabric of the very definitions of what we mean when we say something is secure, private, oblivious and so on. In this course we give an introduction to some of the mathematical foundations of cryptography, such as
  • Probability theory (Including random variables, probability distributions, Markov's inequality and Chernoff bounds)
  • Differential Privacy (Both statistical and computational)
  • Probabilistic algorithms and complexity theory (including indistinguishability and nonuniformity)
  • Algebra (Including Groups, Rings, Fields, Gröbner bases)
  • Elliptic curves and Isogenies

Material

Date Who Lecture 10:00–12:00 (IAIK Seminar room) Additional Material
03.10.2024 FM + KK Kick-Off: Course introduction & organization lecture notes and slides
10.10.2024 FM L1 - Probability theory basics lecture notes
17.10.2024 FM L2 - Differential privacy lecture notes
24.10.2024 FM L3 - Probabilistic algorithms and Complexity Theory lecture notes
31.10.2024 No lecture
07.11.2024 FM L4 - Computational Differential Privacy lecture notes
14.11.2024 KK L5 - Algebra 1 (Relations, Groups) Slides and Code
21.11.2024 KK L6 - Algebra 2 (Rings, Fields) See Algebra 1
28.11.2024 KK L7 - Elliptic curves and Isogenies
05.12.2024 KK L8 - Gröbner Bases
16.01.2025 You Seminar talks
23.01.2025 You Seminar talks

Deadlines

Date Who What Additional Material
28.11.2024 You Choose your seminar paper topic
20.12.2024 You Submit your paper draft
09.01.2025 FM + KK Get feedback on your paper draft
09.02.2025 You Submit your seminar paper

Administrative Information

Course Mode
  • The course starts with a series of lectures, where you will get an overview of the course content. Slides or lecture notes from the lecture will be available at the latest just after the lecture.
  • Your course contribution consists of a seminar paper and a presentation. Topics for seminar papers related to the contents of each lecture is presented at the end of the given lecture. You are also free to choose your own topic, unrelated to lecture contents.
  • Coordinate your topic with us before you start working on it.
  • Deadline for choosing topic is the 28th of November, but you are allowed to choose before that if you wish.
Seminar Paper
  • You write a seminar paper about a well-defined topic that is coordinated with us.
  • A very rough guideline is to aim at around 15 pages for the paper, but you're free to hand in both significantly longer and significantly shorter papers, as long as the depth and clarity does not suffer as a result.
  • Submission deadline for a first draft is the 20th of December.
  • You will get feedback on the draft at the latest on the 9th of January.
  • The final deadline of the paper is then the 9th of February.
Seminar Presentation
  • You present your seminar topic in a seminar talk that lasts around 30 minutes.
  • The dates for presentations are January 16th and 23th.
  • Send us a draft 1 week before you deliver your presentation.
  • Send us your final presentation slides 1 day before your talk.
Other administrative matters

Lecture Dates

Date Begin End Location Event Type Comment
2024/11/21 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/
2024/11/28 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/
2024/12/05 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/
2024/12/12 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/
2024/12/19 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/
2025/01/09 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/
2025/01/16 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/
2025/01/23 10:00 12:00 Seminarraum Abhaltung SE fix/

Lecturers

Christian Rechberger
Christian
Rechberger

Professor

View more
Katharina Koschatko
Katharina
Koschatko


View more
Fredrik Meisingseth
Fredrik
Meisingseth


View more