VOLUME 12, NO. 3     MAY 1999

Conferences focus on fire safety, cryptography

wo important conferences will be held on campus in the coming months.

WPI will host the Second Conference on Firesafety Design in the 21st Century, June 9-11. The focus will be on the social, legal, political, attitudinal, economic and organizational changes required to bring emerging fire safety design methods into routine practice in the upcoming decades. During the first conference, held at WPI in 1991, attendees recommended a new approach to performance-based codes and design practices.

"We still face obstacles in our efforts to implement these codes and practices," says David A. Lucht, professor and director of WPI's Center for Firesafety Studies. "This highly participatory conference seeks to define those barriers and identify strategies for overcoming them."

The conference is co-sponsored by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, with financial support from the National Science Foundation. For more information or to register online, go to www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/Fire/Conf/.

A workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded System (CHES) design will be held at WPI on Aug. 12 and 13. Topics include computer architectures for cryptography algorithms, cryptographic processors and co-processors, efficient algorithms for smart card and embedded processors, fast network encryption, and pseudo random number generators. Of special interest are contributions that describe new methods for efficient hardware implementations and high-speed software for embedded systems, such as smart cards and microprocessors.

Christof Paar, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is organizing the workshop with Oregon State University Professor Cetin Koc.

"Cryptography is rapidly moving from a somewhat esoteric niche area into an important discipline with applications in virtually all future communication products," says Paar. "CHES provides, for the first time, a forum for scientists and engineers concerned with the realization of cryptography in such products."

For more information, go to http://ece.wpi.edu/Research/crypt/ches.