CMSC 858K --- Introduction to Secure Computation

Fall 2013


Course Overview

This course is an introduction to secure computation (broadly construed), primarily intended for graduate students interested in research in this or related areas. Though the topic grew out of the cryptography community, there is now active interest in this area from the networking and programming-languages communities as well.

The intention is to focus on the following topics: (See here for a tentative syllabus.) The course will emphasize definitions, foundations, and formal proofs of security. Students are expected to read papers from the literature, and write scribe notes summarizing what is covered in class.

It is my intention to make the course accessible to students who have not taken cryptography before, and no prior background in cryptography is assumed. Mathematical maturity, however, is assumed. Moreover, be warned that this is not a "survey" course on cryptography, so students who take no other cryptography course will miss out on some fundamental aspects of the field.

Course Requirements

It is expected that students taking this course are interested in potential research in this area and, as such, none of the course requirements will present a problem for anyone taking the class. The requirements are: Note that there will not be any homeworks; I think scribing lecture notes is a better way to learn this sort of material anyway.

For further information about scribing lectures, see here.

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