Math 470, Section 500 Syllabus

Instructor: Ahmad El-Guindy.

Class Times and Location: TR 3:55-5:10 in Blocker 164

Office hours: T 9:30-10:30, W 10:45-11:45 and by appointment at 324 Milner Hall.

Phone: 845-5837.

E-mail: elguindy@math.tamu.edu

Grader: Jared Teslow jteslow AT math.tamu.edu

Grader's office hours : Wed 9-11 at Blocker 611 A

Math 470 Course Home Page: http://calclab.math.tamu.edu/docs/math470/

Announcements Please make sure your TamudirectEmail account is properly set, so that you can receive important reminders/announcements. Also, stay tuned to this page
( http://www.math.tamu.edu/~elguindy/470.html ), for such reminders/announcements, as well as some useful links.

Here is a link to the NIST comptetion for a new hash function.

Final Exam Preparation

  • Quizes and Solutions
  • Midterm and Solutions
  • Review session Wednesday April 30th at Blocker 158 (5:00-6:00 pm)

  • Topics for the final:

    All of Chapter 3

    Chapter 6 except 6.2.2, 6.2.3, 6.4.2 (Quadratic Sieve IS INCLUDED)

    All of Chapter 7

    Chapter 8 except 8.5 and 8.7

    Chapter 9 except 9.5

    Chapter 11 (Digital Cash)

    18.1, 18.2, the Singleton bound from 18.3, 18.4 until p.414

    Extra Credit opportunity

    You could obtain some extra credit if you write a CAREFUL implementation in a programming language to some of the schemes we covered in chapters 6, 7, 8, 10, and 18. If for instance you decide to do RSA, you need to have a mechanism of choosing good primes, good encryption exponents, and of course allowing the "user" to encrypt and decrypt. By "good" primes and exponents I mean ones that are not vulnerable to the kind of attacks mentioned in the book.You should also guard against overflow problems, make sure you know how to break big messages into smaller ones, and so on. Similar considerations would hold for other schemes (Signature, Digital Cash, etc.) The due date for this is April 28. E-mail submission is acceptable. Copying will not be tolerated at all, so please remember your Aggie honor code.

    Quiz III. Take Home, Honor system (No outside help)

    Here is the quiz. It's due on Tuesday April 22 in class.

    Midterm Thursday April 3

    The midterm will cover the material from chapter 2, 3, 6, and 7, with a bit more emphasis on the later three. Here are some sample questions, in addition to the HW problems Sample Midterm . The exam will include definitions of concepts, algorithms, and proofs, as well as problems. Here is a pool of proofs:
  • The Chinese Remainder Theorem and related lemmas in 3.4

  • Fermat's little theorem and Euler's theorem

  • Propositions on the Legendre and Jacobi symbols in 3.10

  • The proposition on low exponent attacks on RSA in 6.2

    Lectures

    Lecture 1 (T 1/15/08)

    Lecture 2 (R 1/17/08)

    Lecture 3 (T 1/22/08) and Maple worksheet

    Lecture 4 (R 1/24/08)

    Lecture 5 (T 1/29/08)

    Lecture 6 (R 1/31/08)

    Lecture 7 (T 2/5/08) and Maple worksheet

    Lecture 8 (R 2/7/08)

    Lecture 9 (T 2/12/08)

    Lecture 10 (R 2/14/08)

    Lecture 11 (T 2/19/08)

    Lecture 12 (R 2/21/08)

    Lecture 13 (T 2/26/08)

    Lecture 14 (R 2/28/08)

    Lecture 15 (T 3/5/08)

    Lecture 16 (R 3/7/08)

    Lecture 18 (R 3/20/08)

    Lecture 19 (T 3/25/08)

    Lecture 20 (R 3/27/08)

    Lecture 21 (T 4/1/08)

    Midterm (R 4/3/08)

    Lecture 23 (T 4/8/08)

    Lecture 24 (R 4/10/08)

    Lecture 25 (T 4/15/08)

    Lecture 26 (R 4/17/08)

    Lecture 27 (T 4/22/08)

    Lecture 28 (R 4/24/08)

    General Rules Regarding the HW:

  • No late homeworks are accepted

  • Homeworks need to be clearly written (and stapled)

  • When using Maple, you need to explain your steps; it is preferable to use descriptive variable names and document what you're doing

  • It's easier to grade if you use the "classical" version of Maple, as opposed to the "java" version.

    Homework by Due Date

  • HW 1: p.59-61, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9. Due Thursday 1/24

  • HW 2: p.56--57, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 10 on p.61. Due Thursday 1/31

  • HW 3: p.57-58: 19, 20, 21, 22, p.61-62, 11, 12, 13. Due Thursday 2/7

  • HW 4: p. 104: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Due Thursday 2/14

  • HW 5: p. 105: 9, 12, 13, 14, 15. Due Thursday 2/21

  • HW 6: p.106-110: 17, 25, 29, 30, 31, 33. Due Thursday 2/28

  • HW 7: p.110: 36, 37, 38, and p. 192 1, 2, 3. Due Thursday 3/6

  • HW 8: p. 192 4, 8 and p. 197 1, 2, and 3. Due Thursday 3/20

  • HW 9: p.215-216 3, 4, 6, 7, 11 and 1,2,3 in computer problems . Due Thursday 4/3

  • HW 10: p.239-242: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 Due TUESDAY April 15

    Course Description: 470. Communications and Cryptography. Credit 3.

    Topics covered : Basic number theory, Classical cryptosystems, RSA Algorithm, Discrete logarithms, Hash functions, Digital signatures.Further applications

    Prerequisite: MATH 222 or 304 and CPSC 110 and approval of instructor.

    Text: Introduction to Cryptography with Coding Theory, 2nd Ed., by Wade Trappe and Lawrence C. Washington, Prentice Hall, 2006, ISBN 0-13-186239-1

    Course Schedule: This course covers Chapters 1 through 3 and 6 through 9 of the text book. .

    Grading: Your grade will be determined by one midterm exam, three quizzes, a cumulative final exam, HW and participation grade. The weights of each of these are as follows. 

    
  Exam I           Quizes            Final         HW            Participation

 20%=100          24%=120            30%=150      20%=100           6%=30  
 Thu 3/27                            Tue 5/6    
(or 4/3)
    The tentative dates for the quizzes are Feb 7, March 4, and April 17 Exam Location: Bloc 164 (Same Room as the lecture)

    The final exam schedule shows that the final for our sections is on Tuesday May 6, 1-3 p.m.

    Grading Scale: Grades will be assigned according to the following

    Attendance of the lectures, is MANDATORY. Such attendance, as well as participation (for example, by asking and answering questions) will have a positive effect on your grade, especially in borderline cases.

    The increased weights of the final exam reflect the cumulative nature of the course.

    Make-ups: for exams and quizzes will only be given with documented University-approved excuses (see University Regulations http://student-rules.tamu.edu/).

    Academic Integrity Statement: Remember that an Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. Please refer to the honor Council Rules and Procedures (http://www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor)

    Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Department of Student Life, Services for Students with Disabilities, in Room 126 of the Koldus Building or call 845-1637.

    Copyright Information: Please note that all written and web materials for this course have an implied copyright. In particular, you can xerox (or download) it only for your personal use, but never for any commercial use or in mass quantities.