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Advanced School for Computing and Imaging (ASCI)

ASCI office
Delft University of Technology
Building 28, room 04.E120
Van Mourik Broekmanweg 6
2628 XE – DELFT, The Netherlands

E: asci-office@tudelft.nl
P: +31 15 27 88032

Visiting hours office
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 10:00 – 15:00

Directions

The ASCI office is located at the Delft University of Technology campus.  It is easily accessible by bicycle, public transport and car. The numbers of buildings can help you find your way around the campus. Make sure you remember the name and building number of your destination.

Contact us at +31 15 278 8032 or send us an email at asci-office@tudelft.nl

A10 Rings and Finite Fields in Modern Cryptography

Rings and Finite Fields in Modern Cryptography

Year  Expected 2026
ECTS  4
Course content
Modern cryptography studies techniques to protect communication and computation against different forms of adversarial behavior. Implementing cryptographic schemes presents a challenging task, and requires a deep understanding of cryptographic schemes as well as the underlying mathematical structures. This course is focused on teaching a basic understanding on selected cryptographic applications and the underlying mathematics, with a focus on rings and finite fields. The course will explain selected topics from symmetric and public-key cryptography, as well as advanced cryptographic primitives, together with efficient implementation techniques for modern (distributed) systems combining CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs. We will further illustrate the need for ASICs in cryptography, and discuss the benefits and challenges of using such architectures.
Course objectives
The students will understand the cryptographic notions and the underlying mathematical structures, and will be able to observe and recognize how mathematical parameter choices and targeted implementation technology affect the performance of the system, thus developing an intuition for good trade-offs between sufficient cryptographic strength and implementation efficiency.
Invited lecturers
  • Lejla Batina, Radboud University 
  • Aleksandar Jurisic, University of Ljubljana
  • Silvia Mella, Radboud University 
  • Nele Mentens, Leiden University
Preliminary course schedule 2024:
Morning sessions:    09:00-11:15 lecture including break, 11:30-12:30 hands-on work session.

Afternoon sessions: 13:30-15:45 lecture including break, 16:00-17:00 hands-on work session.

Monday afternoon: Various application scenarios and the need for cryptography
13:30-15.00: Introduction to cryptography
15:30-17:00: IoT, edge devices, and recent attack examples
18:00-22:00: Welcome reception with dinner

Tuesday morning: Various implementation technologies
9:00-11:15: ASIC, FPGA, CPUs, GPUs, HPC 
11:30-12:30: Performance metrics, optimization techniques, trade-offs

Tuesday afternoon: Mathematical background
13:30-15:45: Lecture
16:00-17:00: Hands-on

Wednesday morning: Symmetric-key cryptography including authenticated encryption
9:00-11:15: Lecture
11:30-12:30: Hands-on

Wednesday afternoon: Public-key cryptography including an excursus on post-quantum security
13:30-15:45: Lecture
16:00-17:00: Hands-on

Thursday morning: Advanced primitives I: homomorphic encryption
9:00-11:15: Lecture
11:30-12:30: Hands-on

Thursday afternoon: Advanced primitives II: zero-knowledge proofs
13:30-15:45: Lecture
16:00-17:00: Hands-on

Friday morning: Advanced primitives III: secure multi-party computation
9:00-11:15: Lecture
11:30-12:30: Hands-on

Shuttle service to station Putten leaves at 12:45 in front of the hotel.

Assessment
ASCI students will be evaluated on 3 small assignments, to be partially completed during the in-class hands-on sessions (and should be finalized after the course completion), as well as a short essay where they link the knowledge obtained in this course with their field of research. Both the essay, and the hands-on related assignments are due 3 weeks after the completion of course.

 

Responsible Lecturer

Nusa Zidaric (LU), Eleftheria Makri (LU), Lisa Kohl (CWI), and Ana Lucia Varbanescu (UT)

Education Period:

Feb 19-23, 2024

Time schedule: start Monday February 19, 2024 at 13.30 hours. End Friday February 23, 2024 at 12.30 hours

ASCI member? Register here

The course will start on Monday February 19 at 13:30 hours. The Shuttle Bus will leave from Station Putten at 12:45 (7 minute drive).

Not an ASCI member? Register here

Your supervisor will be notified that you have signed in for this course.