Format of the course and grading scheme

1. Course Description: We will study symmetric-key cryptography and related topics including classical ci- phers, modern block ciphers and their cryptanalysis, elementary coding and information theory and crypto- graphic hash functions.  Material covered will largely correspond to the first four chapters of the textbook, although some topics from other chapters or outside the textbook may be covered.

2.  Prerequisites: Please see Registrar’s office course schedule for the required prerequisites. Do not attempt to take this course without having satisfied the prerequisites. It is student’s responsibility to check the required prerequisites in Registrar’s office course schedule.

3.  Exams:

There will be a comprehensive FINAL exam at the end of the semester.   In addition, there will be two midsemester TESTS. All the exams will be held online, but students may be asked to turn on zoom video for part or all of each exam. If you need help in installing zoom, please click here. The dates of all the exams are:

YOU MUST TAKE THE EXAMS WHEN THEY ARE SCHEDULED, AND YOU CANNOT TAKE THEM AT ANOTHER DAY.

TEST ABSENCE POLICY: There will be NO makeup tests.  If you miss a test without notifying me, you will receive a 0 for that test. If you notify me in advance and miss a test for an excusable reason (such as medical emergency) with supported documentation, your next test score will count towards the missed test. If you do not take any of the exams for any invalid reason, you will receive a 0 for that exam. REALLY!

The final exam is a required class meeting that will not be rescheduled for discretionary reasons, including conflicts with work schedules, with classes and exams at other colleges, and travel.

Warning: It is student’s responsibility to read the posted class notes and watch the video clips in time in order to keep up with the class. Trying to go through the class material in the last minute before the exam will not result in a good grade.

4. Quizzess and Homework:

There will be online quizzes periodically through out the semester, probably two per week during summer semester.  Regardless of the total number of these quizzes, we will drop the lowest quiz score before cal- culating your final grade at the end of the semester. This drop is designed for you to use in case of illness, or other unexpected emergency.  Since there is no make quizzes for any reason, do NOT use up your drop prematurely, because you may need it later in the semester.

Also, there will be online true/false, fill up the blanks, or short answer (index card) problems assigned periodi- cally (al most daily during summer semester) to make sure that you keep up with the course.

For those who are interested in trying more challenging problems, there will be a set of problem sets posted periodically throughout the semester. These problems will not be collected for grading and so you should try these problems only if you have spare time. The goal is to try these problems without knowing the solutions and so the solutions for these problems will NOT be posted.  Please do not ask me to post the solutions for these problems. Solutions for some of these problems may be very long in comparison to the graded quiz and exam problems. However, it may be good for you to try to solve at least some of them to measure yourself your mastery of the course material. But try these problems only if you have extra spare time after you complete your graded quizzes and index card assignments.

5. Weighting of exams and homework:

There will be NO extra credit possibility in this course. Your final course grade will be determined from your scores on quizzes, Index card problems, Test 1, Test 2, and the Final exam as follows:

6.  Important!

It is your responsibility to make sure that the grade book system is recording your scores properly as the semester progresses.  Any error must be brought to my attention within 24 hours after the respective score is entered in the grade book.   I have no choice but to trust the system at the end of the semester when determining your grades, so you must make sure the information is accurate as the grades are entered into the system. Last minute pleas concerning your grade are not acceptable.

7. Grading scale:

You may use the following table as a guideline to estimate your letter grade in the scale of 1000 points:

A       940 – 1000

A −    900 – 939

B+     870 – 899

B       830 – 869

B −    800 – 829

C+    770 – 799

C       730 – 769

C −    700 – 729

D+     670 – 699

D       630 – 660

D −    600 – 629

F       599 and below

In other words, a grade average of 90% will guarantee a letter grade of at least A-; 80% at least a B-; 70% at least a C-; and 60% at least a D- regardless of the curve.