REU Site: Cryptography, Coding Theory and Quantum Computing at the USF

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site award funds a renewal of a site focused on cryptography, coding theory, and quantum computing at the University of South Florida. Modern life depends on the secure movement, storage, and processing of digital information. Cryptography protects the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of data, while coding theory helps preserve data when noise, transmission errors, or equipment failures occur. These areas are increasingly shaped by the rise of quantum technologies, which create both new opportunities and new threats to digital security. The project’s novelties are the integration of cryptography, coding theory, and quantum computing within a single undergraduate research program, the use of research teams that pair undergraduates with faculty and near-peer mentors, and an expanded scope that connects foundational mathematics with applications to national security, secure communication, and privacy in emerging technologies. The project's broader significance and importance are that it helps prepare a future workforce with the technical depth needed to address pressing challenges in cybersecurity, quantum information, and trustworthy data-driven systems. For each of three summers, this REU Site offers 10 undergraduate students the opportunity to perform research for 10 weeks under the mentorship of an interdisciplinary team with expertise spanning mathematics, computer science, engineering, and physics. This REU Site focuses on active and interdisciplinary research problems in post-quantum cryptography, quantum error correction, and related areas of coding theory and quantum information. Students investigate cryptographic constructions based on code equivalence and lattice isomorphism, including algorithms, security analysis, and implementation issues relevant to future quantum-resistant systems. Additional projects study quantum low-density parity-check codes and decoding failure mechanisms, the design of highly nonlinear functions for block ciphers, locally recoverable codes for distributed storage, physical models for reliable qubit implementation, and privacy-preserving methods for collaborative training of artificial intelligence models. The site combines these research activities with technical training, mentoring in computational tools, workshops on intellectual property and graduate school applications, and a summer symposium in which participants present their results. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2548160 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Jean-Francois Biasse | Institution: University of South Florida, TAMPA, FL | Award Amount: $471,375 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2548160 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2548160.html