Math 187A: Introduction to Cryptography (Winter 2018)
Main | Handouts | Grades | Applets | CoCalc |
This course used to be called MATH 187. It has the same content as MATH 187 from previous years, only its catalog number is diffderent.
Lecture: MWF 3-3:50pm in Peterson Hall, room 110
Instructor: Alina Bucur
Office: AP&M 7151
Email: alina@math.ucsd.edu
Office hours: MW 4-5pm starting week 2 (if you cannot make either of these times, please email me for an appointment).
Discussion sections: Everyone is expected to attend the section they are registered for. Only students registered in that section will be allowed in the discussion classroom. Please check blink for your discussion time.
TAs: | Mingjie Chen | Taylor Mcadam | Kyle Meyer | Sittipong (Kuang) Thamrongpairoj |
A05, A06 | A03, A04 | A07, A08 | A01, A02 | |
mic181@ucsd.edu | tmcadam@ucsd.edu | kpmeyer@ucsd.edu | sithamro@ucsd.edu | |
OH | Th 5-6pm, F 12-1pm | F 1-3pm | Tu 1:30-3:30pm | Th 10am-12pm |
APM 6414 | APM 5712 | APM 6444 | APM 6434 |
Required text: none. Notes will be provided as handouts in class and/or online. For those really interested, a good reference is An introduction to mathematical cryptography by Hoffstein, Pipher and Silverman. (The link provides electronic access through UCSD library.)
Handouts: You will need a username and password to access this part of the website. The credentials will be posted in TritonEd.
CoCalc: CoCalc is a web service running the Sage open-source computer algebra system, but it can be accessed using any web browser and so requires no special software installation. Sage in turn is based on the Python programming language, but no prior knowledge of the Python language will be assumed.
All students are required to create an account on CoCalc using their @ucsd.edu email address in order to complete and submit assignments.
There is no cost for a basic account, so you can try out the software for free.
Note that the web interface is not currently optimized for small screens like smartphones; you might be able to manage with a large tablet and keyboard, but I can't guarantee that this will work. I also recommend bringing a suitable device to lecture/discussion so that you can try things out as we demonstrate them! I will post a note under Announcements a few days before the lectures when we will use SMC to alert you that you should bring a suitable device to class.
Misuse of CoCalc, including abusive or intolerant behavior, will be subject to campus disciplinary measures.
Quizzes: There will be 6-8 quizzes administered Fridays during lecture. Sample quizzes will be posted on Friday the previous week.
Homework: There will be a 3-4 computer assignments: 1 computer assignment on codebreaking using the applets; 2-3 computer assignments using CoCalc.
Each computer assignment counts as one quiz.
Final exam: W 3/21 3-6pm, Peterson 110. Please note that by signing up for this course, you are agreeing to sit for the final examination at this date and time. The exam is not cumulative and it counts as 3 quizzes. This grade cannot be dropped. Please bring a blue book to the final.
Grading: All grades are recorded on TritonED.
Only grades that appear in TritonED will be included in calculating the total score for the course.
The final will be worth as much as 3 quizzes. The computer assignment counts as 1 quiz.
It is your responsibility to make sure your grades are recorded in TritonED. If you do not have access to TritonED, make sure you get it by Wednesday Jan 17.
All tests will be open books and open notes. You will not need a computer for the any of the tests, but a calculator might be useful for some of the tests. If you do use a computer, you can only access the class website or CoCalc. No messaging, no search engines, no websites other than the two explicitly allowed, no communication of any sort with any other people, be they friends or enemies.
The lowest quiz score will be dropped. If you miss one quiz, your score will be 0 on it and that will automatically become your lowest quiz score and be dropped. The final exam grade will not be dropped under any circumstances.
No make-up exams and no make-up quizzes will be given. Cheating on an exam/quiz or any infringement of academic integrity results in failing the class, as well as
further disciplinary action. Please
read very carefully the following ACADEMIC INTEGRITY GUIDELINES.
Grade Recording Errors: Keep all of your returned quizzes and homeworks. If there is any mistake in the recording of your scores, you will need the original assignment/quiz in order for us to make a change. The error has to be reported within 1 week since it occurred. No error reports will be accepted after week #9 of the term.
Regrade Policy: All graded material (except the final) will be returned in discussion sections. If you believe there might be an error in the grading and wish to have your quiz/homework regraded, you must observe the following rules.
- Return your test immediately to your TA. Regrade requests will not be considered once the test leaves the room.
- If you disagree with the TA's answer to your regrade request, you may ask for the instructor to review it. In order to do this, you must:
- return your test immediately to your TA and
- ask that they forward it to the instructor.
- Instructor review requests will not be considered once the test leaves the room.
- If you disagree with the TA's answer to your regrade request, you may ask for the instructor to review it. In order to do this, you must:
- Retrieve your test during discussion section or arrange to pick it up from your TA within one week after it was made available for pickup (i.e., returned) in section. In order to be considered, regrade requests must be submitted within one week after being returned in section.
Letters of recommendation: In general, you should try to get a letter of recommendation from a professor with whom you had some one-to-one contact. I will consider recommendation requests only from people who have placed in the top 25% of the class (in the past, this meant a grade of A+) and who have had some nontrivial interaction with me outside lecture.
Communication: I am happy to talk/answer questions right after class or during office hours. If you cannot make the office hours posted, email me to make an appointment. As a general rule, I will not respond to email unless it is a request to set up an appointment. If you email me with a general question, the answer might be an update to the website for the benefit of the next person with the same question!
Announcements:- Registered UCSD students who cannot register online because they lack some requirement (for instance, freshmen or sophomores) should use this form to ask for an override which will probably be granted. Email requests will not be considered.
- Due to some unfortunate circumstances, this week I will only have office hours Monday 1/8 4-5pm. Please see me then or right before/after class if you have an urgent issue. Regular office hours will start next week (week 2).
- CoCalc will be used during the Wednesday 1/24 lecture. Please bring a computer or suitable device to class and follow along.
- A quick clarification about CoCalc: I will take into consideration and you will be allowed to use during tests only your student project for this course to which the instructors and TA must have access at all times. Not the shared project, or any other project. In particular, posting solutions to quizzes/sample quizzes/etc anywhere online consists misuse of electronic resources and will not be tolerated. Discussions are encouraged, but posting solutions or any work is another matter altogether. From this moment on any such behavior will be referred to the Academic Integrity office.
- On Monday 1/19 we will use CoCalc again in lecture. Please bring a computer or suitable device to class and follow along.
- As of 5:30pm on Friday 2/2, HW1 is in your student projects in CoCalc. It is due at 8pm on Friday 2/9. Please work in the file called hw1.sagews (in the indicated cells) as that is the file that will be collected by the system.
- HW2 has been assigned and is due on Friday 2/23 at the end of lecture. There will be no quiz that day.
- Quiz 5 will be Friday 3/2.
- Alina's office hours on Monday 3/2 are cancelled. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- The last quiz of the quarter will be Quiz 6 on Friday 3/9.
- There will be no ohter hw or quiz this quarter. A list of practice problems for the final will be posted as soon as possible. It will make clear what material will be on the exam.
- Special office hours during finals week:
- Monday 3/19 1-2pm APM B402A (Taylor)
- Monday 3/19 2-3pm APM B412 (Taylor)
- Tuesday 3/20 1:30-3:30pm APM 6444 (Kyle)
- Tuesday 3/20 5-7pm APM 6402 (Alina)
- Wednesday 3/21 9-11am APM 6414 (Mingjie)
- Wednesday 3/21 12-2pm APM 6434 (Kuang)
- Please fill out the CAPEs!
- For the final, all computations have to be done by hand. No preexisting code will be accepted. You can use an offline calculator or your MATH 187A student project on CoCalc to do simple calculations, but nothing more complicated than simple multiplication/squaring (as integers or modulo n) or square roots.
The following items are allowed on the final:- calculators
- class slides printed out and slightly annotated
- class website, including all the handouts
- your MATH 187A student project on CoCalc (while no code will be accepted, you can use CoCalc to check your calculations)
- computers as long as they are used only to access the items above
In particular no talking, email, texting, chatting, instagram, snapchat, sign language, etc; in short, no communication of any sort with any people except the instructor and theTAs. - Review for the final: Friday 3/16 during lecture.