Grading Scheme

There will be regular weekly homework, two tests, and a final project (but no final exam). Each is worth roughly one quarter of the final grade. All tests and the final project are required; however, if it helps your grade, I will drop your lowest test score.

The tests will be on Wednesday, February 13 and Wednesday, March 26.

Homework will be due in class; since there is a grader for the course, out of courtesy to the grader I cannot accept late homework.

The usual cutoffs of 90%, 80%, 70%, and 60% for A, B, C, and D are guaranteed, but the cutoffs can be lowered if the class average warrants it.

Other information

Final project: The final project will consist of a written report roughly 10 pages in length. The project may be on any topic related to cryptology, and does not need to be purely technical; for instance, it is perfectly fine to produce a discussion of some historical incident in which cryptologic mathematics played a role, or of social and political aspects of cryptography. In lieu of a written report, you may instead produce an implementation project, in which you implement a cryptographic protocol, an attack on a cryptosystem, or something of this nature. More guidelines and a list of suggested topics will be made available later in the semester. You should provide me with a preliminary topic proposal no later than Monday, March 10.

Homework: Expect to spend at least two hours outside class working on this course for every class period. You will want to review the lectures, read the text, and do the homework problems. Please staple all multi-page assignments.

Tests: There will be no makeup tests.

Students who require reasonable accommodations based on disability: Students planning to use accomodations for testing in this course need to provide the instructor with a letter of identification from the Disability Resource Center by the end of January.

Attendance: Students are expected to attend every scheduled class, and to be familiar with the University Class Attendance policy as it appears in the General Catalog. It is the student's responsibility to keep informed of any announcements, syllabus adjustments or policy changes made during scheduled classes.