1. PhD Students Class five

2. I am available Questions about a paper Advice on English Small stuff: 3-518, drop in any time email sandy.harris@sjtu.edu.cn

3. If you need several hours Ask me in email to cover topic in class This is your course Within reason, I can cover what you want Or ask complicated questions in email I'll answer you, and put it on FTP for others Or pick an evening, invite me for beer or food.

4. Anyone got spare time? Program to read text files, Create an interactive exercise Students gets: Biham & Shamir invented ??? differential cryptanalysis in ??? 1980s Chooses a/an/the/0

5. FTP /sandy now has subdirectories About English Classic Papers Miscellaneous – from other courses I have taught RFCs – Internet documents Used in Class – slides & exercises I will continue adding to these

6. Original meaning of “thesis” An idea you propose or defend Luther's 95 Theses Nailed to the door of a church in 1517 Criticized priests & pope Started the Protestant Reformation

7. Cluetrain Manifesto -- 95 Theses #1 Markets are conversations. #2 Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors. #3 Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

8. More Cluetrain #15 In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court. #16 Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone. #17 Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves.

9. Organising a thesis Based on a paper by Chinnek http://www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thesis.html Full paper on FTP site, /sandy/About English ThesisWriting.html -- original ThesisChinese.html – translation AdviceOnWriting.html – link collection

10. Original contribution to knowledge Original – must review literature, show it is new Contribution – must show it is useful or valuable Knowledge – not just applying a known technique Reader should learn something

11. It is impossible to be too clear Some examiners may be from outside your field Think about background they need, add it Especially, make claims and goals clear

12. Avoid repetition where possible Just an outline in Introduction Details later Repeat main points in conclusions But not the same text three times!

13. Can you simplify? Tables for data? Tables for comparisons? Appendices for programs and proofs? Graphs?

14. Give simple examples? Alice and Bob for security/cryptography How does your algorithm factor 15 or 77? Mouse for target, cats for sensors?

15. Try to avoid It is obvious that... It follows immediately that... Reader feels stupid if it is not obvious to him/her. Galois had an excuse for skipping steps. You do not.

16. Also avoid “As we know” -- strange expression

17. You have to defend your thesis Examiners are likely to attack it Try not to leave openings They are likely to give you a bit of a hard time Try not to be caught by surprise

18. White hat & Black hat Old Western movies – good guy = white hat Black hat hacker – breaks into systems White hat hacker – protects them Think about attacks on your paper What are the hard questions?

19. Don't claim too much Software is the most important part of a system. Can you prove that? Can you defend it?

20. Another Nearly all scientific calculations require matrix multiplication. Exactly what does “nearly all” mean? Do they “require” MM, or could they be done in other ways? Why is MM preferable? What types can be done without MM?

21. Another Differential cryptanalysis provides extremely efficient attacks against many block ciphers. What is “extremely efficient”? Something that needs > 2 n/2 blocks of known plaintext is horribly inefficient, isn't it? Has a practical break ever been achieved this way?

22. Be ready for “curve ball” questions Your paper is on a cryptanalysis technique How do we design a cipher to resist it? You write on sensors and avoidance What about an enemy who destroys sensors? Would your hash fit on a smartcard? What about timing attacks?