Project Grant 2552210

The National Science Foundation Division of Computing and Communication Foundations awarded the University of Maryland, College Park $300,000 on August 1, 2026, under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) to develop randomness extraction methods and error-correcting codes for computationally bounded adversaries.

The project constructs deterministic randomness extractors for efficiently samplable weak sources, including low-entropy classical and quantum sources and sources subject to leakage or bounded-depth generation. The work develops non-malleable extractors whose outputs remain random even when an adversary observes the extractor applied to tampered or correlated versions of the same source, with emphasis on adaptive tampering and many correlated sources. The project also develops error-correcting and related coding methods under computational constraints. These advances are intended to strengthen the scientific foundations of secure and resilient information systems, with potential applications to secure communications, robust data storage, privacy-preserving systems, and trustworthy digital infrastructure.

Work is performed at College Park, Maryland, with a period of performance from August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2029. The research bridges complexity theory, cryptography, and information theory by studying randomness generation, information transmission, and adversarial processes under feasible computational limits, departing from classical information-theoretic models that assume completely arbitrary worst-case behavior.