Discrete Mathematics

The discrete maths group hosted the workshop “Probabilistic and Extremal Combinatorics Downunder” last week (13-17 June). The workshop was a great success, with 64 participants including 32 from overseas and with 8 Australian universities represented. A highlight of the workshop were talks by 20 invited speakers, and the contributed talks were also of a very high standard. In the feedback we received, several people simply said it was the best conference they had ever attended!

Ron Steinfeld and colleagues won the best paper prize at ASIACRYPT 2015. The paper is “Improved security proofs in lattice-based cryptography: using the Rényi divergence rather than the statistical distance” by Shi Bai, Adeline Langlois, Tancrède Lepoint, Damien Stehlé, and Ron Steinfeld. The prize included a T-shirt with part of the prize-winning paper printed on it!

The School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash is hosting the 32nd Annual Victorian Algebra Conference (VAC32) from Thursday October 2 – Friday October 3. Registration is free.