CS 594 Spring 2026 - Advanced Cryptography

Welcome to the class! I am excited to have you. Throughout this website, you’ll find all the relevant information needed for the course.

On this page, I’ll post important announcements, as well as a changelog. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Announcements

• [April 23, 2026] Slides and recordings for Lectures 24 and 25 posted. Final project presentation information added to the website (announcements already made via Canvas and Ed Discussion). Fixed a missing recording link for last week’s lectures.
• [April 18, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 23 posted.
• [April 14, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 22 posted.
• [April 09, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 21 posted.
• [April 07, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 20 posted. Schedule updated.
• [April 05, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 19 posted.
• [March 29, 2026] Class canceled on Monday, March 30, 2026.
• [March 19, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 18 posted.
• [March 17, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 17 posted.
• [March 12, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 16 posted.
• [March 11, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 15 posted.
• [March 08, 2026] Added missing slides for Lecture 9.
• [March 05, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 14 posted.
• [March 04, 2026] Final Project information posted.
• [March 03, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 13 posted.
• [February 26, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 12 posted.
• [February 24, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 11 posted.
• [February 19, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 10 posted.
• [February 17, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 9 posted. Fixed a mistake on the Schedule.
• [February 15, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 8 posted.
• [February 10, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 7 posted.
• [February 05, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 6 posted.
• [February 03, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 5 posted.
• [January 29, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 4 posted.
• [January 27, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 3 posted.
• [January 22, 2026] Slides and recording for Lecture 2 posted.
• [January 14, 2026] Class canceled today because I am sick.
• [January 13, 2026] Added details for the in-class Presentations. Slides and recording for Lecture 1 posted under Lectures.

Important Info

Instructor: Alexander R. Block

Email: arblock [at] uic [dot] edu

Drop-in Office Hours

• In-person, Monday 12:30-1:30pm or by appointment only.
• Location: CDRLC 4462.

Course Modality and Schedule: ON CAMPUS, in-person only, CDRLC 2411, 11:00am - 12:15pm Central Time, Mondays & Wednesdays.

Student Guide for CDRLC: Google Doc

Important Links

• Syllabus
• Schedule
• Canvas
• Ed Discussion
• Gradescope

Changelog

• [February 17, 2026] Fixed a mistake on the schedule.
• [January 9, 2026] Fixed Ed Discussion link above. Updated Academic Integrity section.
• [January 7, 2026] Schedule updated to account for MLK day; added course Canvas and Gradescope; updated Syllabus.
• [January 6, 2026] Website made available.

Syllabus

Instructor and Course Details

Instructor: Alexander R. Block
Email: arblock [at] uic [dot] edu

Drop-in Office Hours

• In-person, Monday 12:30-1:30pm, or by appointment.
• Location: CDRLC 4462.

Course Modality and Schedule: ON CAMPUS, in-person only, CDRLC 2411, 11:00am - 12:15pm Central Time, Mondays & Wednesdays.

Course Website: https://www.cs.uic.edu/~block/courses/cs594-spring2026/

Course Canvas Site: https://canvas.uic.edu/courses/22957

Course Gradescope Site: https://www.gradescope.com/courses/1215230

Course Ed Discussion Site: https://edstem.org/us/join/rqmzG3 (UIC Email required to sign up)

Course Announcements

Course information will primarily be conveyed using this website (see here), Canvas, and Ed Discussion. Course discussion will happen on Ed Discussion. All course assignments and grades will be collected and returned through Gradescope. I will also send email notifications to the class with announcements.

Communication Expectations

Students are responsible for all information instructors send to your UIC email. Faculty messages should be regularly monitored and read in a timely fashion.

Students are expected to check the above course sites regularly to learn about any developments related to the course, upload assignments, and communicate with classmates. For all technical questions about Canvas, email the Learning Technology Solutions team at LTS@uic.edu.

Please use Ed Discussion private messages shared with the instructors (not just the professor or TA by name) if you wish to communicate with us directly. Please only use email for something that explicitly should be kept private only to that person.

Course Information

Modern cryptography is a massive, interconnected field, encompassing numerous topics beyond the “standard” topics of encryption, digital signatures, and key agreement schemes. Moreover, cryptography is the backbone of all real-world security systems, protecting key digital infrastructures across the world. The widespread use and connections of cryptography helped foster the rapid expansion of the field over the past 50 years, creating a wide variety of tools used to secure everything from our phones to secure transactions over the internet.

With such rapid growth, the foundations of cryptography have grown well-beyond encryption schemes, digital signatures, and key agreement schemes. In practice, these schemes are only part of the cryptographic puzzle, and are often used or built into/from other cryptographic building blocks. This course attempts to survey more advanced, but still foundational, topics in cryptography. The course will mainly concern itself with foundational (i.e., theoretical) understanding of a variety of cryptographic tools which have seen widespread use (in both theory and practice), giving formal definitions and security proofs. Along the way, the course will highlight state-of-the art constructions and real-world applications (when applicable, or barriers when they are not). This will give students a deep, foundational understanding of the field, along with crucial context and real-world applications beyond the theory.

Students will be expected to complete an in-class presentation on a topic covered during the course, as well as a final project on a topic of their choice.

Prerequisites: CS 401 and CS 488; or CS 589; or consent of the instructor.

Growth Mindset: Course materials and assignments can be complex and challenging, but they are crucial to your intellectual and personal growth and development. There are times you may need extra help. Students who attend class consistently, complete all assignments, thoughtfully engage with feedback on work, develop good study strategies, visit the tutoring center, and contact faculty when struggling can develop a thorough understanding of the course material and ultimately succeed in the course!

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

The purpose of this course is to continue to explore the enormous field of cryptography. This course is intended to be a follow-up to CS 488 (Introduction to Cryptography), where students will build upon the ideas and concepts introduced in this course to learn about and build advanced cryptographic primitives.

ABET Learning Outcomes

• (1) an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.
• (3) an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences.
• (7) an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

Course Learning Outcomes

• understand advanced cryptographic primitives.
• learn about the tradeoffs of advanced primitives.
• know the difference between different security notions.
• understand the pros and cons of idealized models and how they affect cryptography.
• understand post-quantum cryptography and how classical primitives are ineffective against quantum computers.

Brief list of topics to be covered (subject to change)

• Crypto Review & Mathematical Tools
• Security Definitions: Asymptotic vs. Concrete
• Idealized Models (Random Oracle, Generic Group)
• Secret Sharing
• Zero-knowledge Proofs
• Secure Multi-party Computation
• Indistinguishability Obfuscation
• Post-quantum Cryptography

Required and Recommended Course Material

No textbook is required for this course. The material covered from this course will be from the following sources:

• A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography by Dan Boneh and Victor Shoup (free online textbook);
• The Joy of Cryptography by Mike Rosulek (free online textbook; all chapters available June 2026);
• A Pragmatic Introduction to Secure Multi-Party Computation by David Evans, Vladimir Kolesnikov, and Mike Rosulek (free online textbook);
• An Introduction to Modern Cryptography by Jonathan Katz and Yehuda Lindell; and
• Research papers from recent cryptography and security conferences, such as:
  • Cryptography conferences: CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, TCC, ASIACRYPT, PKC, FC;
  • Security conferences: S&P, CCS; and
  • Other conferences that accept cryptography papers: STOC, FOCS, ICALP, ITCS.

When relevant or helpful, I will provide links to free materials to help study topics and concepts in this course. Please keep an eye out for changes to the website with these resources. Office hours and Ed Discussion questions will also help you greatly during this course.

Recommended/Expected Background

• Expected: Mathematical Maturity, which includes:
  • Ability to write and understand proofs;
  • Ability to understand/interpret cryptographic definitions; and
  • Knowledge of probability theory (met by prerequisites of CS 488).
• Recommended: the above and the following:
  • Combinatorics;
  • Counting; and
  • Group and Field theory.

Required Technology

Access to a computer and internet is required for this course. Students will be expected to make and give in-class presentations using presentation software.

Respect for Course Copyright: Please protect the copyright integrity of all course materials and content. Please do not upload course materials not created by you onto third-party websites or share content with anyone not enrolled in our course.

Course Policies and Classroom Expectations

Grading Policies & Point Breakdown

Grades will be curved based on an aggregate course score and are not defined ahead of time. The score cut-offs for A, B, C, etc., will be set after the end of the course.

The course will have the following grade breakdown:

Policy for Missed or Late Work

As this course is a seminar, student grades consist entirely of in-class participation, a single in-class presentation, and a final project (of the students’ choice). Thus, the following policy (subject to change) is in place for this course.

• Final Projects will consist of a write-up and a presentation. The presentation cannot be missed or made-up, but the write-up will be allowed to be late (up to 3 days, losing 25% of the grade per late day).
• In-class presentations will follow a similar structure as the final projects.

Attendance / Participation Policy

Your attendance and participation are required in this course. I expect students to come to class, be actively engaged, and to not be disruptive to other students during the class period. Moreover, attendance and participation are required for in-class presentations as well.

However, I do understand that things happen (important meeting conflicts with class, unexpected sickness, etc.). So, for this course, you are allowed to have 4 unexcused absences from class, no questions asked. For all other absences and/or if you need to leave early, you will need to notify me with supporting documentation for your reasons.

Please email me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE if you face an unexpected situation that may impede your attendance, participation in required class and exam sessions, or timely completion of assignments.

Regrade Policy

There are no regrades in this course; all grades given for the in-class presentation and final project are final.

Final Grade Assignments

My goal is to ensure that the assessment of your learning in this course is comprehensive, fair, and equitable. Your grade in the class will be based on the number of points you earn out of the total number of points possible, and is not based on your rank relative to other students. There are no set limits to the number of grades given (e.g., everyone can get an A if everyone does well).

Under no circumstances will grades be adjusted down (except in cases of course policy violation). You can use this straight grading scale as an indicator of your minimum grade in the course at any time during the course. You should keep track of your own points so that at any time during the semester you may calculate your minimum grade based on the total number of points possible at that particular time. If and when, for any reason, you have concerns about your grade in the course, please email me to schedule a time for you to speak with me so that we can discuss study techniques or alternative strategies to help you.

Academic Integrity

Consulting with your classmates on assignments is encouraged, except where noted. However, turn-ins are individual or group-based, and copying code/text from your classmates is considered plagiarism (in the case of individual reports, copying your group member’s report is also plagiarism). You should never look at someone else’s writing/code, or show someone else your writing/code, unless otherwise directed by the instructor. Either of these actions are considered academic dishonesty (cheating) and will be prosecuted as such.

To avoid suspicion of plagiarism, you must specify your sources together with all turned-in materials. List classmates you discussed your homework with and webpages/resources (this includes AI usage) from which you got inspiration and help. Plagiarism and cheating, as in copying the work of others, paying others to do your work, etc., is obviously prohibited, and will be reported (this includes asking questions and copying answers from forums such as Stack Overflow and Reddit).

I report all suspected academic integrity violations to the dean of students. If it is your first time, the dean of students may provide the option to informally resolve the case – this means the student agrees that my description of what happened is accurate, and the only repercussions on an institutional level are that it is noted that this happened in your internal, UIC files (i.e., the dean of students can see that this happened, but no professors or other people can, and it is not in your transcript). If this is not your first academic integrity violation in any of your classes, a formal hearing is held and the dean of students decides on the institutional consequences. After multiple instances of academic integrity violations, students may be suspended or expelled. For all cases, the student has the option to go through a formal hearing if they believe that they did not actually violate the academic integrity policy. If the dean of students agrees that they did not, then I revert their grade back to the original grade, and the matter is resolved.

If you are found responsible for violating the academic integrity policy, the penalty can range from receiving a zero on the assignment in question, receiving a grade deduction, or receiving an F in the class, depending on the severity of the violation.

As a student and member of the UIC community, you are expected to adhere to the Community Standards of academic integrity, accountability, and respect. Please review the UIC Student Disciplinary Policy for additional information.

GenAI

Usage of GenAI is allowed in this course. However, you are expected to use GenAI as a tool to help you, and not as a tool to do the work for you. These are two completely different things. This means you should not be submitting any assignment in this course that is completely written by AI. Doing so constitutes a violation of the course conduct policy and will be appropriately punished.

Failure to adhere to this policy will result in the following consequences:

• First use: You will lose 50% of the points available on the assignment.
• Second use: You will fail the assignment.
• Third use: You will fail the course.

GenAI has helped and hindered new and old programmers alike, and it is in your best interest to use GenAI properly to help you solve problems, not solve them for you (as they will often include extra/incorrect/bloated code). See this article exploring the harm GenAI has done to new programmers.

Course Schedule

• Week 1: Introduction, Review, and Mathematical Tools for this course.
• Week 2: Security Definitions: Asymptotic vs. Concrete.
• Week 3: The Random Oracle Model and Generic Group Model: definitions and constructions.
• Week 4: The Random Oracle Model and Generic Group Model: constructions and applications.
• Week 5: Definitions and Constructions of Secret Sharing schemes: Linear, Shamir, Threshold, Functional.
• Week 6: Applications of Secret Sharing.
• Week 7: Zero-knowledge proofs: definitions and constructions.
• Week 8: Zero-knowledge proofs: constructions and applications.
• Week 9: Secure Multi-party Computation: definitions and constructions.
• Week 10: Secure Multi-party Computation: constructions and applications.
• Week 11: Indistinguishability obfuscation: definitions, constructions, and applications.
• Week 12: Memory-Hard functions: definitions, constructions, applications.
• Week 13: Post-quantum Cryptography: constructions.
• Week 14: Post-quantum Cryptography: how to break traditional cryptosystems.
• Week 15: Week 15: Final Project Presentations.
• Week 16: Final exam week.

Accommodations

Disability Accommodation Procedures

UIC is committed to full inclusion and participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of university life. If you face or anticipate disability-related barriers while at UIC, please connect with the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at drc.uic.edu, via email at drc@uic.edu, or call (312) 413-2183 to create a plan for reasonable accommodations. To receive accommodations, you will need to disclose the disability to the DRC, complete an interactive registration process with the DRC, and provide me with a Letter of Accommodation (LOA). Upon receipt of an LOA, I will gladly work with you and the DRC to implement approved accommodations.

Religious Accommodations

Following campus policy, if you wish to observe religious holidays, you must notify me by the tenth day of the semester. If the religious holiday is observed on or before the tenth day of the semester, you must notify me at least five days before you will be absent. Please submit this form by email with the subject heading: “[CS 402 Fall 2025] YOUR NAME: Requesting Religious Accommodation.”

Student Parents

I know well how exhausting balancing school, childcare, and work can be. I would like to help support you and accommodate your family’s needs, so please don’t keep me in the dark. I hope you will feel safe disclosing your student-parent status to me so that I can help you anticipate and solve problems in a way that makes you feel supported. Unforeseen disruptions in childcare often put parents in the position of having to choose between missing classes to stay home with a child or leaving them with a less desirable backup arrangement. While this is not meant to be a long-term childcare solution, occasionally bringing a child to class to cover gaps in care is perfectly acceptable. If your baby or young child comes to class with you, please plan to sit close to the door so that you can step outside without disrupting learning for other students if your child needs special attention. Non-parents in the class, please reserve seats near the door for your parenting classmates or others who may need to step out briefly.

Classroom Environment

Inclusive Community

UIC values diversity and inclusion. Regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographic background, religion, political ideology, language, or culture, we expect all members of this class to contribute to a respectful, welcoming, and inclusive environment for every other member of our class. If aspects of this course result in barriers to your inclusion, engagement, accurate assessment, or achievement, please notify me as soon as possible.

Name and Pronoun Use

If your name does not match the name on my class roster, please let me know as soon as possible. My pronouns are [he/him]. I welcome your pronouns if you would like to share them with me. For more information about pronouns, see this page: https://www.mypronouns.org/what-and-why.

Community Agreement/Classroom Conduct Policy

• Be present by removing yourself from distractions, whether they be phone notifications, entire devices, conversations, or anything else.
• Be respectful of the learning space and community. For example, no side conversations or unnecessary disruptions.
• Use preferred names and gender pronouns.
• Assume goodwill in all interactions, even in disagreement.
• Facilitate dialogue and value the free and safe exchange of ideas.
• Try not to make assumptions, have an open mind, seek to understand, and not judge.
• Approach discussion, challenges, and different perspectives as an opportunity to “think out loud,” learn something new, and understand the concepts or experiences that guide other people’s thinking.
• Debate the concepts, not the person.
• Be gracious and open to change when your ideas, arguments, or positions do not work or are proven wrong.
• Be willing to work together and share helpful study strategies.
• Be mindful of one another’s privacy, and do not invite outsiders into our classroom.

Furthermore, our class (in person and online) will follow the CS Code of Conduct. If you are not adhering to our course norms, a case of behavior misconduct will be submitted to the Dean of Students and to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the department of Computer Science. If you are not adhering to our course norms, you will not get full credit for your work in this class. For extreme cases of violating the course norms, credit for the course will not be given.

Content Notices and Trigger Warnings

Our classroom provides an open space for a critical and civil exchange of ideas, inclusive of a variety of perspectives and positions. Some readings and other content may expose you to ideas, subjects, or views that may challenge you, cause you discomfort, or recall past negative experiences or traumas. I intend to discuss all subjects with dignity and humanity, as well as with rigor and respect for scholarly inquiry. If you would like me to be aware of a specific topic of concern, please email or visit my Student Drop-In Hours.

RESOURCES: Academic Success, Wellness, and Safety

We all need the help and the support of our UIC community. Please visit my drop-in hours for course consultation and other academic or research topics. For additional assistance, please contact your assigned college advisor and visit the support services available to all UIC students.

Academic Success

• UIC Tutoring Resources
• College of Engineering tutoring program
• Equity and Inclusion in Engineering Program
• UIC Library and UIC Library Research Guides.
• Offices supporting the UIC Undergraduate Experience and Academic Programs.
• Student Guide for Information Technology
• First-at-LAS Academic Success Program, focusing on LAS first-generation students.

Wellness

• Counseling Services : You may seek free and confidential services from the Counseling Center at https://counseling.uic.edu/.

• Access U&I Care Program for assistance with personal hardships.

• Campus Advocacy Network : Under Title IX, you have the right to an education that is free from any form of gender-based violence or discrimination. To make a report, email TitleIX@uic.edu. For more information or confidential victim services and advocacy, visit UIC’s Campus Advocacy Network at http://can.uic.edu/.

Safety

• UIC Safe App—PLEASE DOWNLOAD FOR YOUR SAFETY!
• UIC Safety Tips and Resources
• Night Ride
• Emergency Communications: By dialing 5-5555 from a campus phone, you can summon the Police or Fire for any on-campus emergency. You may also set up the complete number, (312) 355-5555, on speed dial on your cell phone.

Schedule

This schedule is tentative and subject to change. Any changes will be announced.

Resources

Throughout the semester, I will fill this webpage with useful resources. Most (if not all) of these resources will be freely available online.

Presentations

As part of your grade, each enrolled student is required to give an in-class presentation covering one of the following topics we will cover in class:

• Idealized Models
• Secret Sharing
• Zero-knowledge Proofs
• Secure Multi-party Computation
• Indistinguishability Obfuscation
• Memory-hard Functions
• Post-quantum Crypto

The overall structure of in-class presentations is as follows.

1. Sign up for a topic to cover. Please use the following Google form to sign up (please use your UIC Email): https://forms.gle/Zp1xEfn1RHBCP2Wt5

2. After signing up, you will need to find some result/paper/construction related to the topic you have chosen (e.g., if you sign up for Secret Sharing, your presentation will be about Secret Sharing), and then receive approval from me to present this result. To find a result to present, I suggest the following:

   • Find 2-3 papers which are relevant to the topic you wish to present, and you find interesting, then send me the papers for feedback/approval.
   • Alternatively, if you would like some guidance, I am happy to give 2-3 papers for you to look at and decide which one you want to present.

3. Finally, you will schedule and give your presentation. Ideally, if you sign up for a topic (e.g., Secret Sharing), your presentation will be scheduled for the last lecture covering that topic, or the first lecture immediately after. However, this is flexible (e.g., if you want a bit more time), but this flexibility does not mean “indefinitely delay” the presentation.

Presentation Structure

Your presentations are expected to be 15-20 minutes, including 3-5min for questions (max 20 minutes). In your presentations, you are expected to do the following:

• Present a result from a paper (or some other approved source) you find interesting;
• Demonstrate how this result relates to the topic you are covering;
• Present the main points of the result in a way that is understandable to everyone in the class; and
• Confidently answer questions asked during/after the presentations.

Final Project

As part of your grade, each enrolled student is required to finish a final project. The project consists of 3 parts, listed below, along with the total percentage of the grade each part counts towards the final project grade.

1. Project Proposal (15%);
2. Project Presentation (50%); and
3. Project Write-up (35%).

Below is all the information you need regarding the 3 parts of the project. All deadlines for this project can be found at the bottom of this page, as well as on the course Schedule.

Project Overview

For your final projects, you are expected to read, present, and give a write-up about a paper or topic that (1) interests you, and (2) is related to the field of cryptography. Note that (1) is more important than (2) when considering a paper or topic to present; however, if your paper/topic has no relation (or a very weak/superficial) relation to cryptography, I will ask you to reconsider.

You may choose to present a more generic topic than a specific paper. For example, differential privacy is a field related to cryptography. You may choose to give a brief introduction to differential privacy if this is what interests you. Again, the topic, though more general, should be related to cryptography in some non-trivial way.

Groups

As with the in-class presentations, you may work in groups (and are highly recommended to work in groups).

Project Proposal

Due: Friday, April 03, 2026, 5:00pm Central Time.

Your first task for this project is to propose a topic or paper you wish to present. As stated above, your topic/paper should (1) be of interest to you, and (2) should be related to cryptography in some way. This relation should be more than a superficial connection: cryptography should be a big part of the topic/paper.

For your proposal, please submit to me, via email, 2-3 topics/papers you want to present for your final project. If you are interested in presenting a more general topic (e.g., differential privacy), please submit both the topic and the materials you will be using for your presentation. The email should have the subject [CS 594 Spring 2026] Final Project Proposal.

If you wish to do a group project, please cc your group members in your project proposal email.

Project Presentations

Presentation Times: In-class, Week 15, April 27 and 29, 2026.

All presentations will be in-class during the final week of class. The amount of time you get for reach presentation is a function of the total number of groups. That is,

$$\text{Presentation length}=\frac{140}{\#\mathrm{Groups}}\text{ minutes}.$$

The total amount of time across both classes is 150 minutes. I have about 5 minutes per class for transitioning between groups.

Update: as of Monday, April 20, 2026 (via announcements on Canvas and Ed Discussion), each group will have 20 minutes + 3 minutes for questions for your presentations. At 25 minutes, your presentation will be stopped, and you will be asked to allow the next group to present.

Presentation Schedule

Please find the presentation schedule below. The schedule was generated at random to ensure fairness.

• Monday, April 27, 2026

  1. Peter and Sai
  2. Xiaoqui and Han
  3. Pratheek and Fatemeh

• Wednesday, April 29, 2026

  1. Himanshu
  2. Jesse
  3. Marcos, Charis, and Ryan

Presentation Structure

In your presentations, you are expected to coherently explain your paper/topic and proficiently answer questions. Below is a list of things you are expected to do during the presentation.

• Present a result from a paper (or some other approved source) you find interesting;
• Demonstrate how this result relates to the topic you are covering;
• Present the main points of the result in a way that is understandable to everyone in the class; and
• Confidently answer questions asked during/after the presentations.

Presentation Format

You may make slides or give a presentation on the whiteboard. Note that for whiteboard presentations, you need to be aware of how much time you are taking, so be sure to practice!

Project Write-up

Due: Friday, May 08, 2026, 5:00pm Central Time. Submissions will be to Gradescope.

Finally, you are expected to do a short write-up on the paper/topic you are presenting. Your write-up should include (at a minimum) the following details.

• If you are presenting a paper:

  • Articulate the problem the paper is solving.
  • Highlight how the paper improves over prior work, and/or if it is the current state-of-the-art state of the art (at the time of writing), and
  • Clearly explain the technical ideas which make the paper interesting.
  • Give a brief literature overview of prior work.
  • Discuss open problems left by this work (if any).

• If you are presenting a topic:

  • Give a cohesive and clear overview of the topic.
  • Highlight its relationships to other topics.
  • Give a brief overview of some seminal results in the topic area.
  • Explain the interesting technical tools or ideas that have resulted from research in this area.
  • Discuss major open problems in the topic area.

Write-up Format

You are expected to submit a .pdf file, typeset in $\text{LATEX}$. You should have 1-inch margins and 11pt font. Your write-ups should be a minimum of 10 pages (not including citations).

Deadlines

• Project Proposal: Friday, April 03, 2026, 5:00pm Central Time.
• Project Presentations: In-class (11am-12:15pm), Week 15. Dates: April 27 and 29, 2026.
• Project Write-up: Friday, May 08, 2026, 5:00pm Central Time.

Questions

Please post all questions about the final project on Ed Discussion.

Lectures

Lecture 1 (Monday, January 12, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 2 (Wednesday, January 21, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 3 (Monday, January 26, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 4 (Wednesday, January 28, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 5 (Monday, February 02, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 6 (Wednesday, February 04, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 7 (Monday, February 09, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 8 (Wednesday, February 11, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 9 (Monday, February 16, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 10 (Wednesday, February 18, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 11 (Monday, February 23, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 12 (Wednesday, February 25, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 13 (Monday, March 02, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 14 (Wednesday, March 04, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 15 (Monday, March 09, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 16 (Wednesday, March 11, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 17 (Monday, March 16, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 18 (Wednesday, March 18, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 19 (Wednesday, April 01, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 20 (Monday, April 06, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 21 (Wednesday, April 08, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 22 (Monday, April 13, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 23 (Wednesday, April 15, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 24 (Monday, April 20, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording

Lecture 25 (Wednesday, April 22, 2026)

• Slides
• Recording