CY 4770 — Foundations of Cryptography
4 semester hoursUndergraduateLectureNUpath FQusually offered: springtypical days: FBostonOnlineOnlineTraditional
Studies the design of cryptographic schemes that enable secure communication and computation. Emphasizes cryptography as a mathematically rigorous discipline with precise definitions, theorems, and proofs and highlights deep connections to information theory, computational complexity, and number theory. Topics include pseudorandomness; symmetric-key cryptosystems and block ciphers such as AES; hash functions; public-key cryptosystems, including ones based on factoring and discrete logarithms; signature schemes; secure multiparty computation and applications such as auctions and voting; and zero-knowledge proofs.
Prerequisites
Offering history
| Term | Sections | Enrolled | Capacity | Full | Open seats/section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2024 | 1 | 20 | 35 | 57% | 15.0 |
| Spring 2025 | 1 | 22 | 35 | 63% | 13.0 |
| Fall 2025 | 1 | 10 | 20 | 50% | 10.0 |
Snapshots from scheduled scrapes — not live seat availability. "Full" can exceed 100% when sections over-enroll.
Meeting times
Share of recent sections by weekday: M 0% · T 0% · W 19% · Th 0% · F 58%
Common patterns: async (42% of sections), F (38% of sections), WF (19% of sections) — in patterns, R means Thursday
Professors
Fall
- Ariel Hamlin (100% of students) · reviews
Spring
- Jose Sierra (52% of students) · reviews
- Ariel Hamlin (48% of students) · reviews
Percentages are each professor's average share of the season's enrolled students in recent terms.
Links
Official catalog (CY course descriptions) · Student reviews on RateMyHusky · All CY courses · Plan it at numap.app