Math 187B: The mathematics of modern cryptography (Spring 2018)
Main | Grades | CoCalc |
Catalog description: The object of this course is to study modern public key cryptographic systems and cryptanalysis (e.g. RSA, Diffie-Hellman, Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Lattice-based cryptography, Homomorphic Encryption) and the mathematics behind them. We also explore other applications of these computational techniques (e.g. integer factorization and attacks on RSA).
Prerequisites: Math 187/187A and one of Math 18 or 20F or 31AH.
Lecture: MWF 3:00-3:50pm in HSS 1330
Instructor: Alina Bucur
Office: AP&M 7151
Email: alina@math.ucsd.edu
Office hours: M 4-5pm, W 1-2pm. (If you cannot make either of these times, please email me for an appointment).
Discussion sections: Th evenings. Please check Blink for your section time. Please attend only your assigned section, as space is limited; if you need to switch sections, see the math front office (APM 7th floor).
TAs: | Thomas Grubb | Zonglin Jiang |
A02 | A01 | |
tgrubb@ucsd.edu | zojiang@ucsd.edu |
Office hours:
- Alina: M 4-5pm, W 1-2pm (APM 7151)
- Thomas: Th 11am-12pm (APM 6446)
- Zonglin: Tu 1-2pm (APM 5728)
Required text: none. However, students will be required to bring a computer to class to access CoCalc (see below).
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.)
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!
Misuse of CoCalc, including abusive or intolerant behavior, will be subject to campus disciplinary measures.
Computers: Students will need to bring to class a laptop that can access the CoCalc website. The only exceptions are quiz days.
Quizzes: There will be 3 quizzes administered Fridays during lecture. Sample quizzes will be posted on Friday the previous week. You can use printouts of the class notes. They can be slightly annotated (some minor corrections or writing in the margin, highlighter), but nothing beyond that. No other materials or resources are allowed. In particular you may not bring homework solutions (either your own or your TA's). You are also not allowed to bring electronic devices such as a cellphone, calculator, computer, or tablet. (The quizzes may require some arithmetic computations, but these are designed to be done by hand.) All quizzes will have assigned seating.
Homework: There will be 6 assignments, due Fridays at 8pm. All assignments will be assigned, completed, submitted, evaluated, and returned using CoCalc; the process for this will be explained in class. Check TritonED for your scores.
Each computer assignment counts as one quiz.
Final exam: Wednesday, June 13, 3-6pm, location TBD. 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 2 quizzes. This grade cannot be dropped. The same rules as the quizzes: assigned seating, no electronics, the only material allowed are slightly annotated class notes. 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.
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 Friday April 6, 2018.
The lowest quiz/hw 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 under any circumstances.
Academic Integrity:
- You are welcome (and strongly encouraged) to work with other students in the class. However, you must clearly indicate who you worked with on each problem. In addition, you must write your solutions in your own words; do not copy/paste from others, as CoCalc's TimeTravel feature makes this trivial to detect.
- You are welcome (and expected) to do research online using the CoCalc documentation, Google, Wikipedia, Stack Overflow, etc; but be sure to provide links to sources you use in your solutions. Be as specific as possible; e.g., provide URLs to individual web pages rather than to whole web sites.
- Misuse of CoCalc will be considered a violation of academic integrity. This includes unauthorized access to other user accounts, and online behavior that violates UCSD's discrimination and harassment policies.
- Cheating on an exam/quiz/hw or any infringement of academic integrity, including on CoCalc, results in failing the class, as well as further disciplinary action. Please read very carefully the following ACADEMIC INTEGRITY GUIDELINES.
Late adds: No matter when you add the course, you are responsible for all the hw, quizzes, etc. No exceptions.
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 quiz in order for us to make a change. We do have access to the electronic homework on CoCalc. 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: The quizzes will be returned in discussion sections. The hw will be returned electronically in CoCalc. (The final will not be returned.)
- If you believe there might be an error in the grading and wish to have your quiz 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.
- Return your test immediately to your TA. Regrade requests will not be considered once the test leaves the room.
- Regrade requests for the CoCalc hw have to be made within a week of it being electronically returned to you. In order to request a regrade, email the TA with the subject line "Regrade request for HWX" where X is the homework number.
Extra credit: up to 5% awarded for in-class participation during weeks 1-8 of the quarter as follows:
- 3% for participation in 60% of the CoCalc lectures;
- 4% for participation in 80% of the CoCalc lectures;
- 5% for participation in 100% of the CoCalc lectures.
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 and who have had some nontrivial interaction with me outside lecture.
Announcements:- This website is under construction and policies are subject to change. Check back for updates.
- The lecture on Friday 4/13 will not use CoCalc; it will be chalk and blackboard. No need to bring a computer, but you might want to take notes. The same applies to the 2-3 lectures after that.
- The first quiz will be Friday, 4/27. A sample quiz will be posted on CoCalc Friday 4/20.
- F 4/20: CoCalc lecture. Please bring a computer or other suitable device.
- W 4/25: Office hours are rescheduled for 4-5pm. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- As the rules above state, for the quizzes you can use printouts of the class notes and nothing else (we will distribute paper for you to write on). This means printouts of the pdf files that were distributed through CoCalc in the folders lectures/date/. They can be slightly annotated.
You have to bring your own printouts. You will not be able to borrow them from other students or from course staff. - You also need to know your section number (A01 or A02) and the name of your TA. You will not be able to look this info up during the quiz.
- The quiz will have assigned seating. If you need a special seat (e.g. leftie desk) email me by Th 4/26pm at 7pm. The seating assignments will be posted Thursday evening on TritonEd.
- This week, the virtual office hours will be before the quiz, namely Th 4/26, 6-8pm. No virtual office hours on Friday.
- The second quiz will be Friday, 5/4. A sample quiz was posted on CoCalc. Same rules as last week, including assigned seating.
- Due to the quiz, this week's virtual office hours will be Th 5/3, 6-8pm. No virtual office hours on Friday 5/4.
- M 5/7: CoCalc lectures resume. Please bring a laptop.
- Quiz 2 seats will be the same as for Quiz 1.
- Th median for Q1 was 92, the median for Q2 was 98.
- Friday 5/11 we go back to blackboard lectures for a while.
- Quiz 3 will take place Friday 5/25. A sample quiz will be posted F 5/18 on CoCalc. You will find it in your student project for this course under handouts.
- F 5/18: CoCalc lecture
- M 5/21, W 5/23: blackboard lectures
- The notes for Elliptic Curve ElGamal and Menezes-Vanstone cryptosystems are in CoCalc in the file lectures/2018-05-21/lecture21notes2.pdf. The printout of this file is allowed in the quiz.
- This week, virtual office hours will be Th 5/24, 6-8pm.
- Quiz 3 will have the same seating chart as the previous two quizzes.
- W 6/6: CoCalc lecture
- Special office hours during finals week:
- M 6/11, 1-4pm, APM 6446 (Thomas)
- Tu 6/12, 5-6:30pm, APM 6402 (Alina)
- For the final exam you can use a scientific calculator that cannot connect to the internet or wifi, and printouts of the class notes like for the quizzes; nothing else. We will distribute paper for you to write on, as well as scratch paper. This means printouts of the pdf files that were distributed through CoCalc in the folders lectures/date/. They can be slightly annotated.
You have to bring your own printouts. You will not be able to borrow them from other students or from course staff.
In particular, you are not allowed to bring and/or use solutions to the practice problems, old exams, quizzes etc during the final exam.