Arpita Patra

Visiting Scientist

Applied Statistics Unit
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India

E-mail : arpita_v AT isical DOT ac DOT in, arpitapatra10 AT gmail DOT com
Address : Applied Statistics Unit
Indian Statistical Institute
203, B.T. Road, Kolkata 700 108, India

Brief Biography

I have joined as a visiting scientist at the Applied Statistics Unit of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India from 1st January 2014. Meanwhile, I am looking for a permanent position in India. Prior to this, I pursued post doctorate with Prof. Nigel Smart at the Department of Computer Science at University of Bristol. I spent an eventful and colorful year as a post doctorate with Prof. Ueli Maurer at the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Prior to my stint at ETH Zurich, I spent a year in the wonderful group of Prof. Ivan Damgaard at the Department of Computer Science (DAIMI) at Aarhus University as a post doctoral researcher. I obtained my PhD degree in Compter Science & Engineering (Specialization: Secure Distributed Computing and Cryptography) from IIT Madras under the supervision of Prof. C. Pandu Rangan. I secured my MS (Master of Science by Research) in Computer Science and Engineering (specialization: Image Processing and Pattern recognition) from IIT Madras in 2006 under the supervision of Dr. Sukhendu Das.

Research Interests

The focus of my research is the theoretical foundations of cryptography that is concerned with the feasibility of securely realizing cryptographic tasks, finding inherent lower bounds on the computational resources that are needed for solving cryptographic tasks and finding resource efficient secure constructions. The resources most often considered are computational complexity (i.e., measuring the time required to compute some cryptographic function like encryption or secure computation of a functionality), round and communication complexity (i.e., the number of rounds and bandwidth required for a secure interactive protocol). The topics of cryptography I have been interested in so far include: Secure Communication, Secure Multiparty Computation, Verifiable Secret Sharing, Adaptive Security, Public Key Encryption, Oblivious Transfer, Zero Knowledge Proofs, Byzantine Agreement and Broadcast.

Publications:

Journal Publications:
- Efficient Asynchronous Byzantine Agreement with Optimal Resilience. Distributed Computing Journal, 2013.
  with Ashish Choudhary and C. Pandu Rangan
- Efficient Asynchronous Verifiable Secret Sharing and Multiparty Computation. Journal of Cryptology, 2013.
  with Ashish Choudhary and C. Pandu Rangan
- On the Tradeoff Between Network Connectivity, Round Complexity and Communication Complexity of Reliable Message Transmission. Journal of ACM, 2012.
  with Ashwinkumar Badanidiyuru, Ashish Choudhury, Kannan Srinathan and C. Pandu Rangan
- Secure Message Transmission in Asynchronous Networks. Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, vol. 71, no. 8, pp. 1067-1074, 2011.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Ashwinkumar B. V, Kannan Srinathan and C. Pandu Rangan
- Unconditionally Reliable and Secure Message Transmission in Undirected Synchronous Networks: Possibility, Feasibility and Optimality. International Journal of Applied Cryptography (IJACT), vol 2, Issue 2, pp. 159-197, 2010.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Kannan Srinathan and C. Pandu Rangan
- Perfectly Reliable and Secure Message Transmission Tolerating Mobile Adversary. International Journal of Applied Cryptography (IJACT), vol. 1, Issue 3, pp. 200-224, 2009.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Kannan Srinathan, C. Pandu Rangan and Prasad Raghavendra
Selected Conference Publications:
- Constant Round One-Sided Adaptively Secure Two-Party Computation. TCC 2014.
  with Carmit Hazay
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Interpolating Between MPC and FHE. ASIACRYPT 2013, LNCS 8270, pp. 221-240, 2013.
  Ashish Choudhury, Jake Loftus, Emmanuela Orsini and Nigel P. Smart.
- Unconditionally Secure Asynchronous Multiparty Computation with Linear Communication Complexity. DISC 2013, LNCS 8205, pp. 406--421, 2013.
  Ashish Choudhury and Martin Hirt
- Brief Announcement: Efficient Optimally Resilient Statistical AVSS and Its Applications. Accepted in PODC 2012, pp. 103-104, ACM Press, 2012.
  with Ashish Choudhury
- Computational Verifiable Secret Sharing Revisited. ASIACRYPT 2011, LNCS 7073, pp. 590-609, 2011.
  with Michael Backes and Aniket Kate
- Error-free Multi-valued Broadcast and Byzantine Agreement with Optimal Communication Complexity. OPODIS 2011, LNCS 7109, pp. 34-49, 2011.
- Simple and Efficient Single Round Almost Perfectly Secure Message Transmission Tolerating Generalized Adversary. ACNS 2011, LNCS 6715, pp. 292-308, 2011.
  with Ashish Choudhury and Kaoru Kurosawa
- The Round Complexity of Verifiable Secret Sharing: The Statistical Case. ASIACRYPT 2010, LNCS 6477, pp. 431-447, 2010.
  with Ranjit Kumaresan and C. Pandu Rangan
- Communication Efficient Asynchronous Byzantine Agreement. PODC 2010, pp 243-244, ACM Press, 2010.
  with C. Pandu Rangan
- On The Communication Complexity of Perfectly Secure Message Transmission in Directed Networks. ICDCN 2010, LNCS 5935, pp. 42--53, 2010.
  with Ashish Choudhury and C. Pandu Rangan
- Communication Efficient Perfectly Secure VSS and MPC in Asynchronous Networks with Optimal Resilience. AFRICACRYPT 2010, LNCS 6055, pp. 184--202, 2010.
  with Ashish Choudhury and C. Pandu Rangan
- The Round Complexity of Verifiable Secret Sharing Revisited. CRYPTO 2009, LNCS 5677, pp. 487--504, 2009.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Tal Rabin and C. Pandu Rangan
- Simple and Efficient Asynchronous Byzantine Agreement with Optimal Resilience. PODC 2009, pp. 92--101, ACM Press, 2009.
  with Ashish Choudhury and C. Pandu Rangan
- Information Theoretically Secure Multi Party Set Intersection Re-Visited. SAC 2009, LNCS 5867, pp. 71--91, 2009.
  with Ashish Choudhury and C. Pandu Rangan
- Perfectly Secure Message Transmission in Directed Networks Revisited. PODC 2009, pp. 278--279, ACM Press, 2009.
  with Ashish Choudhury and C. Pandu Rangan
- On Minimal Connectivity Requirement for Secure Message Transmission in Asynchronous Networks. ICDCN 2009, LNCS 5408, pp. 148--162, 2009.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Ashwinkumar B.V, Kannan Srinathan and C. Pandu Rangan
- On Tradeoff Between Network Connectivity, Phase Complexity and Communication Complexity of Reliable Communication Tolerating Mixed Adversary. PODC 2008, pp. 115--124, ACM Press, 2008
  with Ashish Choudhury, Ashwinkumar B.V, Kannan Srinathan and C. Pandu Rangan
- Brief Announcement: Efficient Single Phase Unconditionally Secure Message Transmission with Optimum Communication Complexity. PODC 2008, pp. 457, ACM Press, 2008.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Kannan Srinathan and C. Pandu Rangan
- Efficient Perfectly Reliable and Secure Communication Tolerating Mobile Adversary. ACISP 2008, LNCS 5107, pp. 170--186, 2008.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Madhu Gayatri and C. Pandu Rangan
- Unconditionally Reliable and Secure Message Transmission in Directed Networks Revisited. SCN 2008, LNCS 5229, pp. 309--326, 2008.
  with Ashish Choudhury and C. Pandu Rangan
- Constant Phase Efficient Protocols for Perfectly Secure Message Transmission in Directed Networks. PODC 2007, pp. 322-323, ACM Press, 2007.
  with Ashish Choudhury and C. Pandu Rangan
- Perfectly Secure Message Transmission in Directed Networks Tolerating Mixed Adversary. DISC 2007, LNCS 4731, pp. 496--498, 2007.
  with Ashish Choudhury, Kannan Srinathan and C. Pandu Rangan
All publications:
- See Publications.

PhD Thesis: PhD Thesis on Multiparty Computation, Byzantine Agreement, Verifiable Secret Sharing and Reliable and Secure Message Transmission.

Master Thesis: Master Thesis on Efficient Methods for Face Recognition and Multi-modal Biometry.

Professional Activities

Program committee member for the following conferences:

Reviewer for the following conferences and journals: ACM CCS 2013, ASIACRYPT 2013, PKC 2013, CRYPTO 2012, TCC 2012, Crypto 2011, Journal of Cryptology, TCC 2011, INDOCRYPT 2010, ASIACRYPT 2010, PKC 2010, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, ICITS 2009, ICALP 2009, ACISP 2008, ICITS 2008, ASIACRYPT 2008, CANS 2008.

Teaching Assistantship (2011-2012)

Teaching Assistant for the following courses at ETH Zurich:

Cryptographic Protocols Spring 2012
Discrete Mathematics Fall 2011

Photography & Blogging

I love photography, with a focus on nature photography. I love nature, the most beautiful lady in my eyes. I imbibe all my positive power from her to fight with the real world I am forced to live in. I love to travel alone. That is when, I feel to become a part of the nature. I am happy to share with you my photostream.

My photography skills have been acknowledged.

One of the photographs taken by me was selected as the BIG PICTURE of the week by `The Telegraph, UK'. See this link for details.
Another photograph had got honorable mention in the photo contest organized by `PhotoContests.com' in the `Reflection' category. See this link for details.

Blogging caught my fancy very recently. As and when the fancy strikes me, I put down my thoughts in this space.