PhD Position in Theoretical Computer Science

The goal of the project is to study classes of error-correcting codes that have recently seen applications in (fast) cryptographic protocols. For example, in the World of secure multi-party computation, judicious choices for error-correcting codes hold the promise of turning what was once a theoretical curiosity into a practical reality. In a similar vein, cryptographic proof systems (as used, e.g., in block-chains) always require an underlying code, and modern optimizations of proof systems usually stem from optimizations in the underlying codes. There are many questions to be studied regarding the security of these new code-based cryptosystems.

Firstly, in many cases it is not clear how to construct the codes with the desired properties, at least with sufficiently small error probabilities. Furthermore, our understanding of the cryptanalytic attacks applicable to these codes is rather limited. Lastly, we are still just scratching the surface of the power of these code-based systems, and many new optimizations/improvements remain to be found.