From koc@ECE.ORST.EDU Tue May 23 16:12:06 2000
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:47:26 -0700
From: Cetin Kaya Koc <koc@ECE.ORST.EDU>
To: ISLMAIL <islmail@security.ece.orst.edu>
Subject: Course Announcement for Fall 2000


    COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT--FALL 2000

    Mth 440/540  Computational Number Theory
           MWF 1:00

    The middle of the twentieth century is often identified as
the beginning of renewed interest in computational number theory.
It was also a time when technology was becoming an integral part
of communication and business.  Concern for computer security was
more widespread and in the mid 1970s public key cryptology was born.
In an August 1977 Scientific American article, the "MIT cipher"
(now known as the RSA public key cryptosystem) was announced.
Since the security of RSA depended on the difficulty of factoring
large integers, computer security and computational number theory
became linked.

    The principal topics in this course are primality tests and
factoring algorithms, as well as the RSA crytosystem and other topics
in crytology.  No previous knowledge of number theory is needed;
we will develop all necessary number theory in the course.  There will be
a computing component and Maple will be our primary computing tool.
No previous knowledge of Maple is needed.

       
    Mth 440 is a recognized upper division undergraduate elective in
computer science.  Mth 440 is also the first term of an algebra sequence
for math majors.  Graduate students are also welcome.

    Students who have experience in machine computation will have
an opportunity to work on some computational problems in a mathematical
context.  On the other hand, for students whose interests and background
are more theoretical this class should provide a more solid appreciation
of machine computation as well as computational number theory.


For more information, please contact the instructor, Mary Flahive:
    flahive@math.orst.edu or 737-5146.
More information will be posted at
 http://ucs.orst.edu/~flahivem/440f00.html