Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $300,000 Project Grant to Trustees of Tufts College under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) effective July 1, 2026, with completion anticipated by June 30, 2029. This collaborative research initiative addresses the security vulnerabilities of CRYSTALS-Kyber, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-standardized key encapsulation mechanism for post-quantum cryptography (PQC). The project deliverables include the development of secure Kyber hardware architectures capable of resisting both side-channel attacks (SCAs) and fault attacks (FAs) through integrated countermeasures and hardware acceleration techniques.

The research outputs will advance the security and efficiency of next-generation cryptosystems in the quantum computing era through three integrated research thrusts: systematic evaluation of side-channel leakage vulnerabilities in Kyber with domain adaptation and transfer learning methodologies; practical fault attack assessment and mitigation; and combined algorithm-hardware co-design optimization. Findings will be disseminated through presentations and tutorials at academic conferences and workshops, yielding a novel framework applicable to both commercial cryptographic products and national defense systems. Research will be conducted at Tufts' Medford, Massachusetts campus.