The Summer School-Conference with international participation
"Cryptography and Information Security — 2021" in memory of Professor S. F. Krendelev is a traditional annual event at NSU. The organizers are the Cryptographic Center (Novosibirsk), the JetBrains Research Cryptography Laboratory, the Information Technologies Department of NSU, the International Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok, the organizers of the NSUCRYPTO International Olympiad and the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of NSU.
University students, school graduates and high-school students took part in the school, which was held on July 5–19 in full-time format.
For two weeks, 20 teachers worked with the school participants. These are project curators and lecturers from Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Moscow (Russian Quantum Center, Moscow State University, Sberbank blockchain laboratory), Bergen (Norway), Minsk (Belarus), Largo (Maryland, USA). Part of the school-conference was held in English. 31 lectures were read, a round table was held, and most importantly, research was carried out in small groups under the guidance of curators. The topics of the projects were related to problems of symmetric cryptography, cryptanalysis, post-quantum cryptography, blockchain technologies and information security. In a number of areas, groups of school participants have obtained results that will form the basis of scientific publications; they are planned to be finalized during the fall. In order for students and schoolchildren to develop not only their intellectual abilities, but also not to forget about their health, sports lessons were traditionally conducted under the guidance of a trainer from Novosibirsk.
31 participants successfully graduated from the school. These are students of NSU (Departments of IT, Mathematics and Mechanics, Physics), Baltic University (Kaliningrad), TSU (Tomsk), SFedU (Taganrog) and schoolchildren of the Gornostay gymnasium (Novosibirsk), the Lyceum of Information Technologies (Novosibirsk), Lyceum No. 6 (Berdsk). All of them received commemorative certificates and scholarships from the JetBrains Foundation.
On the website of the summer school, a schedule of lectures and a collection of the school's proceedings are available — theses prepared by the participants together with the curators based on the results of research carried out within the school.
—
This year we managed to conduct the school offline, combining the usual format of lectures with a video format, when students and schoolchildren are in the audience, and the lecturer communicates with them through the screen. It turned out, in my opinion, productively. The face-to-face format, of course, is fruitful: the fact that next to you, at the next table and in the neighboring rooms, the school participants are actively working every day, enthusiastically discussing something, programming, writing on the blackboard is very inspiring to work. I noticed that many previously unfamiliar guys have become friends, and this is very good, — said
Natalya Tokareva, head of the school, associate professor of the Chair of Computer Systems of the IT Department of NSU (ITD NSU) and head of the JetBrains Research Cryptography Laboratory.
—
It was really a pleasure to take part in the summer school. I got the impression that everything was running very smoothly both from the technical and organizational side (which is no small feat for such a big event, especially when remote and physical lectures have to be combined), so I also want to congratulate you (and the entire team) with the successful event! — comments on his participation as a lecturer
Nikolay Kaleisky, a cryptographer from the University of Bergen (Norway).
—
It was very interesting for me to get acquainted with a completely new sphere for myself. The summer school program is very rich. Lectures from leading experts who are at the forefront of science and tell not from books, but from their own experience and their research, which they do every day. I liked the teaching staff very much, they are responsive and enthusiastic people. I also had the opportunity to meet and work in one team with guys from other universities and regions. From the summer school, I have only positive emotions and new knowledge, — writes
Vladislav Shaparenko, a graduate of the school-conference, a student of the Mathematics and Mechanics Department of NSU (MMD NSU).
—
The summer school traditionally brings many new acquaintances and interesting projects. The list of lecturers is replenished every year, the geography is expanding, the material becomes more diverse. This year was no exception. The team of our project managed to develop an optimization of the algorithm for searching for the guaranteed number of activations [S-boxes when performing differential cryptanalysis], which allows to significantly speed up the calculation of this characteristic, which looks promising. Also, we should not forget about other traditional activities that are interesting — a volleyball match, a round table and a cryptoquest, — notes
Denis Parfyonov, student of the ITD NSU.
“The summer school is a way to find like-minded people with whom it will be possible to implement a project and gain experience of speaking in front of an audience,” says
Alexander Bakharev, a student of MMD NSU. And
Natalya Atutova, a student at the MMD NSU notes:
Ability to communicate with passionate people is a very valuable experience. In addition to lectures and group lessons I remember the crypto quest and the volleyball match among teachers and participants".
The organizers of the school-conference are ready to continue working with students participating in the school in the JetBrains Research cryptography laboratory at the ITD NSU.
