-
Toward a code-breaking quantum computer
The most recent email you sent was likely encrypted using a tried-and-true method that relies on the idea that even the fastest computer would be unable to efficiently break a gigantic number into factors. Quantum computers, on the other hand, promise to rapidly crack complex cryptographic systems that a classical computer might never be able…
-
Janabel Xia: Algorithms, dance rhythms, and the drive to succeed
Senior math major Janabel Xia is a study of a person in constant motion. When she isn’t sorting algorithms and improving traffic control systems for driverless vehicles, she’s dancing as a member of at least four dance clubs. She’s joined several social justice organizations, worked on cryptography and web authentication technology, and created a polling app that…
-
Yael Tauman Kalai PhD ’06 awarded 2022 ACM Prize in Computing
Yael Tauman Kalai PhD ’06, an MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) adjunct professor, member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research has been awarded the 2022 ACM Prize in Computing for “breakthroughs in verifiable delegation of computation and fundamental contributions to…
-
It’s a weird, weird quantum world
In 1994, as Professor Peter Shor PhD ’85 tells it, internal seminars at AT&T Bell Labs were lively affairs. The audience of physicists was an active and inquisitive bunch, often pelting speakers with questions throughout their talks. Shor, who worked at Bell Labs at the time, remembers several occasions when a speaker couldn’t get past…
-
Peter Shor wins Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
Peter Shor, the Morss Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT, has been named a recipient of the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He shares the $3 million prize with three others for “foundational work in the field of quantum information”: David Deutsch at the University of Oxford, Charles Bennett at IBM Research, and Gilles…
-
MIT launches new data privacy-focused initiative
Strategic use of data is vital for progress in science, commerce, and even politics, but at the same time, citizens are demanding more responsible, respectful use of personal data. Internet users have never felt more helpless about how their data are being used: Surveys show that the vast majority of U.S. adults feel that they…
-
Kerry Emanuel, David Sabatini, and Peter Shor receive BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge awards
The BBVA Foundation awarded three MIT professors Frontiers of Knowledge Awards for their work in climate change, biology and biomedicine, and quantum computation. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Professor Kerry A. Emanuel, Department of Biology Professor David Sabatini, and Department of Mathematics Professor Peter Shor were recognized in the 12th edition of this…