[This is the sequel to Jelani's previous post on chaining method; for more, see the post STOC workshop on this topic --Boaz] 1. A case study: (sub)gaussian processes To give an introduction to chaining, I will focus our attention on a concrete scenario. Suppose we have a bounded (but possibly infinite) collection of vectors $latex {T\subset \mathbb{R}^n}&fg=000000$. … Continue reading Chaining methods continued (guest post by Jelani Nelson)

Following the exciting paper of Garg, Gentry, Halevi, Raykova, Sahai and Waters, the world of cryptography has been ablaze with "obfuscation fever" with many  longstanding questions succumbing to obfuscation-based constructions. At the same time, our understanding of the computational assumptions required for these constructions is still very much incomplete (e.g., see these two recent works  and the … Continue reading Hopes, Fears, and Software Obfuscation

[Jelani Nelson is organizing a post-STOC workshop on  Chaining Methods and their applications, and agreed to write a 2-post series about these methods here. --Boaz] 1. Workshop details Assaf Naor and I (Jelani Nelson) are organizing a two-day workshop ``Chaining Methods and their Applications to Computer Science (CMACS)'' June 22--23, 2016, immediately after STOC 2016. It … Continue reading Workshop on Chaining Methods (guest post by Jelani Nelson)

Guest post by Aleksander Mądry This summer, on June 6-8 in Paris, we will be having a new algorithmic event: Highlights of Algorithms 2016 (HALG 2016) conference This conference will be quite unlike the conferences we are all used to. First of all, it will consist mainly of invited talks and tutorials, accompanied by a … Continue reading Highlights of Algorithms 2016