IC Monday Seminars : On One-way Functions and Pseudorandom Generators
Event details
| Date | 02.04.2012 |
| Hour | 16:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Thomas Holenstein, ETHZ - IC Faculty candidate |
| Location |
INM 202
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract
One-way functions and pseudorandom generators are fundamental primitives in cryptography. In this talk, I will start by explaining the concepts, connecting them to tasks which seem more natural. In particular, I will first show that one-way functions exist if and only if it is possible to generate hard NP-problems together with their solution. Furthermore, I will show that pseudorandom generators have a very direct correspondence to private-key encryption schemes.
After having introduced these concepts, we discuss the relationship of the two primitives, focusing on lower bounds which I recently obtained in joint work with Makrand Sinha.
Biography
Thomas Holenstein received his PhD in computer science in the year 2006 from ETH Zurich with his thesis: "Strengthening Key Agreement using Hard-Core Sets". His PhD advisor was Ueli Maurer, and the thesis was honored with the ETH medal. After this, Thomas Holenstein was a postdoctoral scholar with Microsoft in the Silicon Valley Campus for two years. He then was a postdoctoral scholar for one year at Princeton University. Since 2009 he is an assistant professor at ETH Zurich.
One-way functions and pseudorandom generators are fundamental primitives in cryptography. In this talk, I will start by explaining the concepts, connecting them to tasks which seem more natural. In particular, I will first show that one-way functions exist if and only if it is possible to generate hard NP-problems together with their solution. Furthermore, I will show that pseudorandom generators have a very direct correspondence to private-key encryption schemes.
After having introduced these concepts, we discuss the relationship of the two primitives, focusing on lower bounds which I recently obtained in joint work with Makrand Sinha.
Biography
Thomas Holenstein received his PhD in computer science in the year 2006 from ETH Zurich with his thesis: "Strengthening Key Agreement using Hard-Core Sets". His PhD advisor was Ueli Maurer, and the thesis was honored with the ETH medal. After this, Thomas Holenstein was a postdoctoral scholar with Microsoft in the Silicon Valley Campus for two years. He then was a postdoctoral scholar for one year at Princeton University. Since 2009 he is an assistant professor at ETH Zurich.
Links
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
- This event is internal
Contact
- Christine Moscioni