| Course Title: Cryptography: The Mathematics of Sending Secret Messages |
| Start Date: 09/06/2023 End Date: 12/19/2023 |
| Term: Fall Semester 2023 |
| Description: Cryptography is the study of secret communication between different groups of people. From 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt when secret hieroglyphs were used to communicate the messages of royalty to today when credit card numbers are encrypted to be transmitted over the internet, cryptography has been a necessary part of human life. In this class we will discuss classical cryptography and some historical ciphers along with the mathematical concepts of the modern field. We will study public key cryptography, prime numbers, the discrete logarithm problem, the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, and RSA encryption. If time permits we will also discuss elliptic curve encryption. In particular, we will use the Python programming language and Jupyter notebooks to implement the encryption schemes that we study. |
| Distribution(s): II - Math & Sciences , SI - Speaking-Intensive , WI - Writing-Intensive |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Margaret Robinson | 413-538-2394 | robinson@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 09/06/2023 - 12/19/2023 | Lecture | Monday, Wednesday and Friday | 10:00AM - 11:15AM | CLAP - Clapp Laboratory | 203 | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| None |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Students who have taken a 100-level Mathematics, Statistics, or Computer Science course can take this at the 200-level with permission of the professor. |
| Course Tags |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Closed | Capacity: 18 | Enrollment: 25 | Available: 0 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| Title: The Mathematics of Secrets Author: Holden, Joshua Copyright: 2017 Edition: Volume: ISBN: Publisher: Princeton University Press |
Required | 13.95 |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is the complete book list for this class. |
| Instructor's comments about the book list: The paperback edition of this book is available on Amazon for $13.95. You can also download the 9 chapters and the notes and front material through LITS from JSTOR as pdf files for free at https://www-jstor-org.proxy.mtholyoke.edu:2443/stable/j.ctvc775xv |