###EE 720 – INTRODUCTION TO NUMBER THEORY AND CRYPTOGRAPHY

**Semester : **

Spring 2018

Professor who took the course

Prof. Saravanan Vijayakumaran

Motivation behind the course

Study of Mathematical techniques for securing digital information, systems and distributed computations against adversarial attacks Course Content

1.Perfectly Secret Encryption 2.Private-Key Encryption 3.Message Authentication Codes 4.Practical Stream and Block Ciphers 5.Number Theory, Groups, Finite Fields 6.Public-Key Encryption 7.Hash Functions 8.Digital Signatures Pre-requisite

Basic probability Python Programming Asymptotic notation

Feedback on lectures

Lectures were up to the marks. Professor gave summary of the lectures as a pdf that usually did not outline the proofs (and they were asked in the exam), so better to write notes in the class. It had lot of mathematical proofs and professor provided decent explanations for the same. The references usually contained all the material that was covered in the class and they were pretty much self explanatory. So even if you did not understand something in the class, you can always go back and read. Feedback on Exams :

Exams can be considered to be on the side of moderate to difficult level. Mathematical proofs were asked in indirect manner, so it is better to understand what logic is being used in the proofs.

Grading and Difficulty level: 10% Assignments, 20% Quizzes, 25% Midsem, 45% Endsem Relative grading For AU, nal score should be at CC level or above

Grading was pretty lenient for the lower grades. Relative grading was done on the basis of 10 marks margin from the class’ highest score. Since exams are not that tough the highest score is around 98-99. So for AA, you need to have marks > 88-89 and so on for the other grades. Kindly refer to ASC as well. It is easy to get to a decent grade if you put in minimal efforts.

Attendance:

Books :

Introduction to Modern Cryptography, Jonathan Katz and Yehuda Lindell, CRC Press, 2015 (2nd Edition) A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography, Neal Koblitz, Springer, 1994 (2nd Edition)

Reviewed By: Sahil Chawla (140070060@iitb.ac.in)