CyLab

Distinguished Seminar: Hiding secrets in software with Amit Sahai

March 19, 2018

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET

DEC, CIC 1201

This event is part of the CyLab Distinguished Seminar Series. 

Abstract:

The goal of general-purpose program obfuscation is to make an arbitrary computer program “unintelligible” while preserving its functionality. Obfuscation allows us to achieve a powerful capability: software that can keep a secret. This talk will cover recent advances in obfuscation research, yielding constructions of general-purpose obfuscation mechanisms based on mathematical structures.

Speaker Bio:

Amit SahaiProfessor Amit Sahai received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT in 2000. From 2000 to 2004, he was on the faculty at Princeton University; in 2004 he joined UCLA, where he currently holds the position of Professor of Computer Science. His research interests are in security and cryptography, and theoretical computer science more broadly. He is the co-inventor of Attribute-Based Encryption, Functional Encryption, and Indistinguishability Obfuscation. He has published more than 100 original technical research papers at venues such as the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), CRYPTO, and the Journal of the ACM. He has given a number of invited talks at institutions such as MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, including the 2004 Distinguished Cryptographer Lecture Series at NTT Labs, Japan. Professor Sahai is the recipient of numerous honors; he was named an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow in 2002, received an Okawa Research Grant Award in 2007, a Xerox Foundation Faculty Award in 2010, a Google Faculty Research Award in 2010, a 2012 Pazy Memorial Award, and a 2016 ACM CCS Test of Time Award. For his teaching, he was awarded the 2016 Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award. His research has been covered by several news agencies including the BBC World ServiceQuanta Magazine, Wired, and IEEE Spectrum.

Upcoming Events