BU RISCS Researchers Win Two Grants from DARPA

Recently two research teams with researchers from BU, UC Berkeley, MIT, Microsoft Research, and Caltech were recognized with a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Award. Both projects are part of the DARPA SIEVE program whose mission is to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security.

The first project, which is for $4M (over four years), centered around developing “Zero-Knowledge” proofs in legal contexts. Zero-knowledge proofs are a cryptographic mechanism that allows any entity with sensitive data to convince the rest of the world that the data adhere to a social or ethical norm or complies with the law, regulation, or contractual agreement while simultaneously keeping the sensitive data private in order to protect national or civil security, legitimate business needs, or personal privacy, dignity, and freedom. The project is led by Mayank Varia (Research Associate Professor of Computer Science and Co-Director of the Center for Reliable Information Systems & Cyber Security at the Hariri Institute for Computing). Varia is joined by Leo Reyzin (Professor of Computer Science, BU), Azer Bestavros (Associate Provost for Computing and Data Sciences, BU ), Aloni Cohen (Research Fellow at RISCS and BU Law School), Ran Canetti (Professor of Computer Science, BU), Shafi Goldwasser (Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley).

The second project, which is also for $4M (over four years), is focused on building quantum-secure zero-knowledge protocols. The project is led by Professor Goldwasser and includes Ran Canetti and Leo Reyzin from BU, Vinod Vaikuntanathan from MIT, Yael Kalai from Microsoft Research, and Thomas Vidick from Caltech.

About DARPA
For sixty years, DARPA has held to a singular and enduring mission: to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security, working with innovators inside and outside of government. It works within an innovation ecosystem that includes academic, corporate, and governmental partners, with a constant focus on the Nation’s military Services, which work with DARPA to create new strategic opportunities and novel tactical options. DARPA comprises approximately 220 government employees in six technical offices, including nearly 100 program managers, who together oversee about 250 research and development programs.

About RISCS
The Center for Reliable Information Systems and Cyber Security (RISCS) promotes and coordinates research and education in system reliability and information security by emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach that includes fields as diverse as reliable and secure computations, engineering, economics, ethics, and law.