Professors Sean Hallgren and Adam Smith Receive NSF CAREER Awards
| Sean Hallgren |
Sean Hallgren and Adam Smith, assistant professors of computer science
and engineering, have received NSF Faculty Early Career Development
(CAREER) awards. According to NSF, "This is the most prestigious
awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the
role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent
education and the integration of education and research within the
context of the mission of their organizations." Hallgren works in the area of quantum computation, which aims to use quantum mechanical systems for computation. Quantum computers can break widely used cryptosystems, including those used to protect e-commerce transactions. The goal of this project is to find new applications for quantum computers and to determine which cryptosystems are secure against them. |
| Adam Smith |
Smith studies cryptography and information privacy and their connection
to such diverse fields as quantum mechanics, combinatorics, information
theory and statistics. He looks at preserving privacy in the
publication of statistical data, cryptography based on noisy secrets
and quantum cryptography. His CAREER award will focus on the problems
stemming from conflicts between data access and privacy in collections
of personal and sensitive data such as census surveys, social networks
and public health data. His work will address the need for formal
privacy guarantees that remain meaningful even against an intruder with
partial knowledge of the sensitive data. Congratulations! |
