IEEE Bombay Section

cordially invite you to a Lecture on

by

Dr. T R N Rao

Venue : C S Deptt.,

IIT, Mumbai

Date : Monday, 7th December 1998

Time : 2:30 p.m.

Abstract : The Computer revolution has ushered in many electronic systems, namely, E-mail, E-signatures, E-cash, E-trade etc. The mathematical backbone for these tools of electronic commerce is the modern science of `Cryptology’. This talk surveys how an old-art `Cryptology’ has transformed into this modern Science in little over two decades.

Basic concepts of cryptology and some examples of Public-key systems, such as RSA, and their applications to communication security are discussed. Also we discuss authentication systems using zero-knowledge protocols, secret-sharing and secret error correction topics.

Dr. T R N Rao received the B.Sc. degree in physics (1952) from Andhra University, and D.I.I.Sc. (1955) from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, (1961 and 1964 respectively). He taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, during the years 1967-1975 and at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, from 1975 to 1980. He is presently the Z.L. Loflin Chair Professor of Computer Science at the Center for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He was a fulbright Follow in India during 1986-1987 and 1993-1994.

Dr. Rao received the 1994 IEEE information Theory Society’s Best Paper Award for "Decoding Algebraic-Geometric Codes up to the Designed Minimum Distance", published in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, January 1993. He served as an Editor of IEEE Transactions On Computers from 1991-1995 and was Chairman of the ACM Lectureship Committee from 1991-1992. He also received the ACM Distinguished Lecturer of the Year Award for 1992. He was named a Fellow of the IEEE in 1984 for his "Contributions to Arithmetic Coding. Unidirectional Codes and Fault-Tolerant Computing" and Fellow in ACM in 1996.

He is the author of Error Coding for Arithmetic Processor (Academic Press, 1974) and a co-author of Error Control Codes for Computer Systems (Prentice Hall, 1988). He edited several research volumes in the past and recently edited Computing Science in Ancient India jointly with Subhash Kak (1998). Dr. Rao has also received funding for over 15 research grants from Federal Agencies, among the NASA, NSF, ONR and NSA.