CRCD: A Cryptography Center for Research and Education

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

0088063 Boston, Nigel University of Illinois at Urbana CRCD: A Cryptography Center for Research and Education This project is concerned with the field of cryptography. This university is establishing the Illinois Center for Cryptography and Information Protection (ICCIP), a multidisciplinary center focused on research and education in fields that influence information protection and are influenced by information protection techniques. This CRCD project lays the groundwork for the educational and curricular aspects of the center. Multidisciplinary groups of upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students (from engineering, computer science and mathematics) are organized into teams attacking problems in modern cryptography. This project also addresses the development of cryptography related courses that are cross-listed in mathematics, engineering, and computer science. The project involves industrial partners who contribute practical problems and interact with teams. Industry, government, and academe need employees with a broad range of skills who can work in this field in inter/multidisciplinary teams. For example, attacks on current crypto-systems can be sophisticated mathematical ones or direct physical ones. To counter such attacks takes concerted efforts from team members having different expertise in mathematics, engineering, and computing. The same holds true for the creation of new information protection schemes. Computing and engineering practitioners are faced with physical limitations of circuits, software, and devices in implementing mathematical solutions to information protection. This curriculum produces individuals with broad backgrounds and experience in working in teams on realistic problems in cryptography and the creation of novel collaborations that will advance technological developments much quicker than has historically been the case.