• F0.225 is the room for the first talks (10.12.19, 16:15). 
• New date for the first time slot for talks is 10.12.19, 16:15.
• Introductory talk time and room is 23.10.19, 16:15, FU.511.
• Slides from the seminar kick-off meeting (09.10.2019) including formalities and dates (link).
• Slides from the introductory talk (23.10.2019): (pptx)
• You may be interested in our Seminar FAQ

Topic Choice

You send us your top 3 of seminar topics that interest you. We distribute the topics and send you your assigned topic as well as your supervisor. You can also swap your topic once with another willing person.

Introductory Talk

We will give a talk on the style of a scientific paper and how to work with literature. This is mandatory.

Kick-Off Meeting

You meet individually with your supervisor. We expect you read your assigned paper and understood the main idea by this point. We discuss your tasks and questions you have.

Q&A Day

We answer all of your questions in detail. This is one day in the semester where you can arrange a meeting with your topic supervisor.

Essay Draft

You hand in a draft of your essay. We strongly recommend that it to be "feature complete", i.e. everything you plan to have in the final essay should be included in this version. This is your chance to get comprehensive feedback on your work.

Talk Slides

We ask you to turn in the slides of your talk (presentation). We will give feedback for this.

Talk

You will present your topic for all seminar participants and the supervisors in one talk (either in the first slot or second slot). Your talk should last 1h including discussion (so you should plan to talk around 45-50 minutes). 

Essay Final Version

The final version of the essay should incorporate the feedback given for the draft version and your talk.

The following is the list of seminar topics.

• Match Me if You Can: Matchmaking Encryption and Its Applications (accessible from within the university's network)
  • Explain the definition and idea of matchmaking encryption and explain the ideas behind their bilinear Diffie-Hellman-based construction
• Efficient verifiable delay functions
  • Explain the idea behind VDFs and the construction in their paper
• A systematic literature review of blockchain-based applications: Current status, classification and open issues (accessible from within the university's network) 
  • Give an overview of what's going on in the blockchain space. This does not need to be limited the paper we've referenced above
• Fiat-Shamir With Aborts: Applications to Lattice and Factoring-Based Signatures
  • Present the technique Fiat-Shamir with Aborts, and explain the construction and security of lattice-based signatures from it
• LWE Encryption
  • Present the lattice-based encryption scheme and draw comparisons to Regev's original scheme
• BBA+: Improving the Security and Applicability of Privacy-Preserving Point Collection
• Software protection and simulation on oblivious RAMs
• Path ORAM: An Extremely Simple Oblivious RAM Protocol
• Foundations of Differential Privacy
  • Introduce the basics of Differential Privacy and analyze the Laplace and Exponential Mechanisms.
• Optimal Differentially Private Mechanisms for Randomised Response
  • Explain Randomized Response and how to choose its parameters in the context of Differential Privacy.
• Handoff All Your Privacy – A Review of Apple’s Bluetooth Low Energy Continuity Protocol
• Breaking and Fixing Anonymous Credentials for the Cloud
• Keeping the Smart Home Private with Smart(er) IoT Traffic Shaping
• Algorand: Scaling Byzantine Agreements for Cryptocurrencies
• Darknet Security: A Categorization of Attacks to the Tor Network
• Robust Synchronous P2P Primitives Using SGX Enclaves
• On Privacy Notions in Anonymous Communication

In this seminar there are two time slots for giving your talk. You can either give your talk in the middle of the semester or at the end of the semester.

Any slot: All students have to hand in their slides one week before their talk.

Essay

Your essay should be 10 to 12 pages. The deadline for the final version of the essay is shown in the table at the top. It should be in the style of a scientific paper. If you like, you can use our LaTeX templates as a starting point. 

Talk

Your talk should last 1h including discussion (so you should plan to talk around 45-50 minutes). You will be able to show slides (bring your own laptop with HDMI or VGA or contact your supervisor). The format is 16:9. If you like, you can use one of our templates as a starting point.