Our regular Crypto Café seminars take place every other Tuesday,10 am-10:50 am during the semester. We invite local and international experts on topics in Mathematics and Computer Science related to Cryptography and Information Security.
Come and join us for freshly brewed coffee and interesting conversations on the most exciting topics in cryptography.
Where: SE-43 (Charles E. Schmidt College of Science) - Room 271
https://researchseminars.org/seminar/CryptoCafe
You can catch up on any missed meetings by following the link below:
Spring 2026, Crypto Cafe Schedule:
March 17, 2026, 10:00 am Science Building (SE-43), room 271
Speaker: Maryam Taghi Zadeh , Florida Atlantic University
Title: Hardware-Software Co-Design of XMSS Post-Quantum Digital Signature on FPGA +Zoom (click here)
Abstract: With the growing demand for quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions, hash-based signature schemes such as XMSS (eXtended Merkle Signature Scheme) have emerged as strong candidates for post-quantum security. In this work, we present a hardware-software co-design implementation of XMSS on the PYNQ-Z2 FPGA platform, where the computationally intensive SHAKE-256 hash core is offloaded to the programmable logic fabric while the higher-level signature control flow is managed by the ARM processor. The hardware accelerator is integrated with the software layer through an AXI interface, enabling efficient data transfer and synchronization. We explore multiple architectural optimizations including multi-round-per-cycle configurations, achieving notable improvements in clock frequency alongside reductions in overall signing latency and improved resource utilization. The results demonstrate that FPGA-based co-design is a practical and efficient approach for deploying post-quantum cryptography in embedded and IoT environments.
March 3, 2026, 10:00 am Science Building (SE-43), room 271
Speaker: Merve Karabulut (FAU)
Title: Area–Efficient First-Order Masked Modular Reduction for ML-DSA in Caliptra Root-of-Trust +Zoom (click here)
Abstract: Masking is an effective countermeasure against side-channel attacks, yet it often introduces significant hardware overhead. In the Caliptra Root-of-Trust, the masked ML-DSA implementation incurs approximately 6× area overhead due to modular reduction costs. In this talk, I will present a novel first-order masking architecture that significantly optimizes the modular reduction stage of ML-DSA. Compared to Caliptra’s baseline design, our implementation achieves a 12.1× speedup, reduces LUT usage by 86.7% and flip-flops by 94.5%, and improves area–delay efficiency by 91×. Extensive TVLA evaluation with over 1,000,000 traces shows no detectable first-order leakage, meeting Caliptra’s security requirements while substantially improving implementation efficiency.
February 17, 2026, 10:00 am Science Building (SE-43), room 271
Speaker: Luke Carey, Ph.D. student, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Florids Atlantic University
Title: An Overview of DualMS: A Post-Quantum Multi-Signature
Abstract: A multi-signature is a cryptographic scheme which allows for multiple independent parties to sign a singular message together. The scheme DualMS by Yanbo Chen (2023) is an example of a post-quantum lattice-based two-round multi-signature scheme, which utilizes many fascinating cryptographic techniques, including Module Learning with Errors (MLWE), rejection sampling, and the discrete Gaussian. At this talk, we will give an overview of DualMS, give a very short outline of the proof of security, and briefly discuss possible future directions we can take DualMS.
https://researchseminars.org/seminar/CryptoCafe
