The results of the international cryptography Olympiad Non-Stop University CRYPTO-2020 have been presented

The Non-Stop University CRYPTO Olimpyad is the only international cryptography contest. It brings together pupils, students and professionals from all over the world. Anyone can take part in it, regardless of geographic location. The official language of the Olympiad is English. Its goal is to attract young researchers to solve problems of modern cryptography.

In 2020, NSU CRYPTO was held online in two independent rounds: personal and team. Schoolchildren of Akademgorodok and NSU students took an active part in the struggle and managed to win prizes.

In the first round, Danila Kazantsev and Georgy Vinokurov (SESC NSU) received honorary diplomas in the "schoolchildren” category. Konstantin RomanovSergey Zinchenko and Vladislav Orekhovsky (Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of NSU) also received honorary diplomas in the "students" category. Roman Lebedev, a postgraduate student of the Department of Information Technologies of NSU, was awarded a second-degree diploma in the category of "professionals".

In the second round, a team of NSU students consisting of Alexander BakharevKonstantin Sharankhaev and Rinchin Zapanov received certificates of honor. A team of NSU professionals, including Roman LebedevVladimir Sitnov and Ilya Koryakin, was awarded a third-degree diploma.

The organizers note that this year there is a record number of winners and prize-winners, and the number of participants is growing from year to year. In 2020, 775 young researchers from over 50 countries took part in the Olympiad, with 14 countries being represented for the first time.

Natalya Tokareva, chair of the program committee of the Olympiad, head of the cryptography laboratory at the Faculty of Information Technologies of NSU, notes:

Very strong rivals came. Participants from India, Sweden, France, Germany, Great Britain, China and other countries performed brilliantly at the Olympiad. It is becoming more and more difficult for participants from Russia to win prizes, but so far they have succeeded.

In the first round, 84 participants were awarded prizes and diplomas, in the second round - 49 teams from 32 countries. A detailed list of winners is published on the Olympiad website.

A welcome lecture by the famous cryptographer Nicky Mouha (NIST, USA) was a unique event for the participants of the Olympiad. In his lecture, Review of the Advanced Encryption Standard, he first presented the revision of the AES encryption standard from the US National Standards Institute, video available here.

The tasks of the contest included both tests that did not require special training and those based on complex mathematical apparatus and programming. The program committee consists of specialists from 10 countries who are experts in various fields of cryptography, therefore the questions raised are of practical importance and are relevant at the moment.

Anastasia Gorodilova, a co-chair of the program committee of the Olympiad, senior lecturer at the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of NSU, said:

It is pleasant to note that this year special prizes will again be awarded for solving open questions posed at the Olympiad! One problem on the test of numbers for simplicity was successfully solved by many participants. This fact confirms that the participants are not afraid to take on such work. In addition, during the Olympiad, we received a partial constructive solution to another unsolved and more difficult problem. 

The Olympiad was sponsored by the Cryptographic Center (Novosibirsk), the International Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk State University, Huawei Cloud.