Welcome to Cryptography! (Fall 2024)

Hello class and welcome!

I’m your professor, Dr. Katherine Stange.  A little about me.  My job as a professor is half teaching and half research.  My research is in number theory and cryptography, so I especially enjoy this course.  When I’m not working, I like to cycle up Flagstaff, or anywhere that is uphill.

I hope you’re going to find this class challenging but fun and exciting.  This class has some features I want to make sure you are aware of up front:

  • The focus on the course is on the mathematical algorithms underpinning modern cryptography and cryptanalysis, mostly public-key cryptography, as well as some coding theory.  We will tie the algorithms we study to real-world implementations and events.  Topics will include basic number theory including elliptic curves and finite fields, current public-key cryptosystems, basic quantum computing and quantum cryptography, post-quantum (quantum-safe) cryptography, and coding theory.
  • This is a mathematics course, and you will be expected to reason mathematically about mathematical objects, follow and understand proofs, know definitions, be able to reason out examples, predict the outputs of algorithms and computations, etc.   However, this course will not emphasize proof-writing.  You certainly do not need to be a math major, but you need to have some mathematical/analytical thinking skills.  There are few explicit mathematical pre-requisites, but linear algebra will help a lot.
  • I will teach and expect some basic python programming, so we can implement algorithms.  This will be modular, so if you have coding skills already, you won’t need to “redo” your basic skills.
  • I expect you to find 1 hr between each class for homework.  There will be “daily posts”:  per lecture assignments.  The rest of your study time will be discretionary and flexible.
  • We will use discord.  Please plan to check discord and this website regularly for updates.  Things move fast.
  • There will be a poster project in small groups.  This is a self-guided research project into a related topic in the course.
  • Students taking 5440 (instead of 4440) will replace the poster project with more extensive individual projects.

To Do:

  • To learn all about the course, examine the tabs in the header menu.  These tabs together form the syllabus.
  • Log into canvas for access to the discord sign up link.