Graduate Student Association

Our mission is to serve the graduate student body of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences through representation on faculty and administrative bodies, by encouraging the sharing of information both amongst students and with outside organizations, and by fostering a sense of community within the School by means of various social events and activities.

Contact

Feel free to e-mail us if you have any questions or suggestions: gsa AT listes.epfl.ch

Upcoming events

Friday, May 12, 2006 at 12:15 in INM 202 (Pizza will be served starting at 12:00)

by Emin Gabrielyan

Abstract - Thanks to the large buffering time of off-line streaming applications, erasure resilient Forward Error Correction (FEC) codes can improve the reliability of communication particularly well. However real-time streaming puts hard restrictions on the buffer size making FEC inefficient for combating long link failures on single path routes. Path diversity is orthogonal to buffering and permits real-time streaming to also benefit from application of FEC. We introduce a capillary routing algorithm offering layer by layer a wide range of multi-path routing topologies starting from a simple solution and evolving toward reliable routing patterns with highly developed path diversity. The friendliness of a multi-path routing pattern is rated by the overall amount of FEC redundancy required for combating the non-simultaneous failures of all links of the communication footprint. We rated the friendliness of a dozen of capillary routing layers, built on several hundreds of network samples obtained from a random walk Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET). The overall requirement in redundant FEC codes decreases substantially as the spreading of the routing grows.

Past events

Cryptanalysis through Cache Address Leakage on Friday, April 21, 2006
by Eran Tromer, Weizmann Institute in Israel
(Joint work with Adi Shamir and Dag Arne Osvik)
Abstract: Modern processors employ virtualization and access control mechanisms to protect the content of processes' memory. However, information about the memory /addresses/ being accessed is leaking through a shared resource, namely the processor's memory cache. This talk will show how this ubiquitous phenomenon can be practically exploited as a side channel, and describe the cryptanalytic applications to various ciphers.
Experimental results include, for example, full recovery of an AES key from a Linux encrypted filesystem using just 800 analyzed encryptions.
Implications include violations of security boundaries in many multi-user, sandboxed and virtualized systems, as well as web content and DRM mechanisms.


INNOGRANTS, a Support Tool for Your Ideas on Friday, April 7
by Hervé Lebret
Abstract: Students, researchers, professors, you think your idea has unique potential. We offer you the possibility to develop it with our INNOGRANTS and by facilitating the access to the essential actors for the success of your project.


Logical Concepts in Cryptography on Friday, March 31
by Simon Kramer
Abstract: We will see logical concepts in cryptography by looking at principal cryptographic goals and by formalising them in a logical language.


GSA kick-off meeting on Tuesday, March 21
Abstract: We will introduce the Graduate Student Association, provide information about what we will be doing, let you know how you can participate, and to provide you with a free pizza lunch.