DD2449 Foundations of Cryptography

Resultat av kursutvärdering


    21 question expecting an answer and possibly a comment.


  1. What do you think of the difficulty of the course?

    1. 6% (1 st) Very easy.
    2. 0% (0 st) Easy.
    3. 6% (1 st) Average.
    4. 61% (11 st) Hard.
    5. 28% (5 st) Very hard.


  2. Did you early on in the course find out the purpose of the course?

    1. 72% (13 st) Yes.
    2. 28% (5 st) To some extent.
    3. 0% (0 st) No.


  3. Do you think the course is interesting and meaningful?

    1. 78% (14 st) Yes very.
    2. 22% (4 st) Yes.
    3. 0% (0 st) Neutral.
    4. 0% (0 st) Not particularly.
    5. 0% (0 st) No.


  4. Was your background in mathematics sufficient for the course?

    1. 72% (13 st) Yes.
    2. 17% (3 st) Doubtful.
    3. 11% (2 st) No.


  5. Was your background in programming sufficient for the course?

    1. 72% (13 st) Yes.
    2. 11% (2 st) Doubtful.
    3. 17% (3 st) No.


  6. What do you think about the book by Stinson?

    1. 11% (2 st) Very good.
    2. 39% (7 st) Good.
    3. 22% (4 st) OK.
    4. 17% (3 st) Not so good.
    5. 0% (0 st) Bad.
    6. 11% (2 st) Did not use it.

    Comment on the book or other book used:

    This book is ok, but I used a lot 'Handbook of Applied Cryptography', which I love.
    ---
    Jag är av skolan att jag lär mig mest om jag har fullständiga lösningar till uppgifter. Stinson saknade dessa och det gillar jag inte!
    ---
    Not so fond of his notations
    ---
    Bra matematisk nivå.
    ---
    Ibland för teoretisk eller antar massa saker, vilket är jobbigt eftersom man måste ta till sig nytt material och hänga med i hur de resonerat kring matematiska bevis osv. Inte svårt men tar tid!

    Kort sagt: OK men exempel behöver tydliggöras lite mer.

    ---
    He motivates certain things poorly. Example:
    "Obviously, the AES is secure against all known attacks" (pg 108). He doesn't even do hand-waving,
    just makes claims here and there. His parameter
    choices and estimates about future computation power
    are often somewhat silly.

    But this is still a good book.

    ---
    förklarar inte alla detaljer, wikipedia är bättre
    ---
    Confusing with use of default variables for example in rsa or in schnorr where the lecturer used one set of names and the book another one, confusing when cross-checking book and lecture notes.


  7. Were the lecture notes form three years back useful

    1. 6% (1 st) Very.
    2. 28% (5 st) To some extent.
    3. 11% (2 st) No.
    4. 56% (10 st) Did not look at them.

  8. What fraction of the lectures did you attend?

    1. 0% (0 st) Less than 20%.
    2. 11% (2 st) 20-40%.
    3. 6% (1 st) 40-60%.
    4. 22% (4 st) 60-80%.
    5. 61% (11 st) More than 80%.


  9. What do you think about the lectures of Johan Håstad from a pedagogical point of view? Are explanations clear, at the correct pace, is the correct media used for the lectures?

    1. 50% (9 st) Very good.
    2. 17% (3 st) Good.
    3. 17% (3 st) Acceptable.
    4. 17% (3 st) Not so good.
    5. 0% (0 st) Bad.
    6. 0% (0 st) Did not participate.

    Comments (constructive critisism is most useful):

    Johan Håstad explains things quite well, but when I took this course, I expected a much higher level. Every details I might be interested in were only discussed at the end of each lectures. That's why I did not attend the lectures so often.
    ---
    Bra takt, men vi hade hunnit mer om vi inte lagt så mycket tid på att gå igenom förra föreläsningen varje tillfälle.
    ---
    To much math, not so much how the cryptos workt but more the theories.
    ---
    Man hängde med oftast, men aldrig tillräckligt för att kunna ställa andra frågor än "Hur blev det..?" "varför..?", innan det var dags att fylla nästa tavla.
    ---
    Insulting the class, orally or with body language
    is the only bad thing about Johan's way of teaching.
    Remember that CS students find math difficult, but
    think hash tables, sorted trees, etc quite simple.
    Once or twice Johan spent lots of time trying to
    get the class to suggest a simple data structure/
    search problem.

    ---
    Since students are a bit more restrictive with asking questions in english, it's important that Johan avoids making fun of them. It's better to encourage them so the climate in the classroom feels comfortable, positive and relaxed.
    ---
    It's good and commendable that he really tries to get the students involved in the lectures despite him having a hard time getting people to answer :)
    ---
    Skulle varit intressant att jämföra med när du håller en lektion på svenska. Rent spontant kände man väl sig lite ställd till uttrycket: "Are you happy with this?" , en aning otydligt kanske. Annars tyckte jag föreläsningarna var mycket bra om man läst på ordentligt i förväg. Ibland blev det svårt att hänga med i matten när man inte var så påläst.
    ---
    ingen riktig inledning alla gånger, kändes som väldigt ytlig genomgång i vissa fall. Svårt att förstå vad för svar Johan ville ha ur hans frågor.
    ---
    The summary of the previous lecture at the beginning of each lecture is great.


  10. What do you think about the guest lecture by Mats Näslund?

    1. 22% (4 st) Very good.
    2. 39% (7 st) Good.
    3. 11% (2 st) Acceptable.
    4. 0% (0 st) Not so good.
    5. 0% (0 st) Bad.
    6. 28% (5 st) Did not participate.

    Comments on the lecture by Mats Näslund:

    I attended his presentation, and it was very interesting. It was a pitty he was in a rush and could not deal with everything.
    ---
    Very interesting, all courses should have a guest lecture from the industry.
    ---
    More cryptography and less general GSM/3G/LTE
    information would have made it more interesting.

    ---
    Nice to get the industries perspective.
    ---
    Intressant att få höra om tillämpningar.
    ---
    Kul att få se användning av det vi lärt oss och på en stor skala.
    ---
    Very interesting.


  11. What do you think about the fact that the lectures by Johan Håstad were in English?

    1. 6% (1 st) Important for me to be able to follow the course.
    2. 44% (8 st) Equally good as Swedish.
    3. 44% (8 st) Swedish would have been better.
    4. 6% (1 st) Swedish would have been much better.


    Comments on English lectures:

    Tror nog man får ut mer av en person på sitt modersmål. Framförallt så är man van vid det, när man sedan ska ta in nytt material på engelska så går det lite segare. Oftast brukar jag gå på frl för att få saker bättre förklarade, men eftersom det inte var på svenska så kändes boken bättre.
    ---
    "Divisor" is pronounced [di'vaisor]. :-)
    ---
    He held one class in swedish and despite him doing great in english the lecture was more coherent and easier to follow.
    ---
    Jag har inga problem med engelska normalt, men då föreläsningarna snabbt gick igenom de olika krypton som fanns så hade nog svenska varit att föredra.


  12. How smooth has the course been from an adminstrative point of view?

    1. 44% (8 st) Very smooth.
    2. 39% (7 st) Smooth.
    3. 11% (2 st) OK.
    4. 6% (1 st) Bad.
    5. 0% (0 st) Very Bad.


    Comments to improve administration:

    No comment, it was perfect. Administration from the web page is the most usefull thing that could be done.
    ---
    Inga problem här.


  13. How much time did you spend on problem set 1?

    1. 0% (0 st) Less than 9 h.
    2. 0% (0 st) 9-14 h.
    3. 0% (0 st) 15-20 h.
    4. 100% (18 st) More than 20 h.

    Commens on problem set 1:

    As I am very interested in crypto challenges, I tried to solve everything in this first Homework. It took me time but I did not know exactly how much time I spent on it.
    ---
    Bra uppgifter, men för lite teori.
    ---
    Pseudopolynomet hade jag inte fått tillräcklig info om. I övrigt så var det väl utmanande uppgifter och AES var bra, men man slösade sjukt mycket tid på Kattis fastän man fick rätt svar på datorn på testfil.
    ---
    Lot's of work, but I learned a lot!
    ---
    Uppgift 1 var speciellt rolig, då man inte riktigt visste hur texten var krypterad alls.
    ---
    vignere och transpositions -krypton var krångligt eftersom det var början av kursen och man inte riktigt visste hur man skulle tackla dem.
    ---
    It was hard to know exactly how a formal proof of security is designed.
    ---
    Quite hard but very rewarding.


  14. How much time did you spend on problem set 2?

    1. 0% (0 st) Less than 9 h.
    2. 0% (0 st) 9-14 h.
    3. 6% (1 st) 15-20 h.
    4. 94% (17 st) More than 20 h.

    Commens on problem set 2:

    Same reasons as Homework 1, but without doing two exercices I was not interested in so much.
    ---
    Bra uppgifter.
    ---
    Denna var mycket jobbigare. Dåligt att man inte fick testdata för Schnorr.
    ---
    Lot's of work, but I learned a lot!
    ---
    Uppgift 2b kändes lite väl datorkrävande, både med avseende på minne och beräkningstid.
    ---
    Att lösa elliptiska kurvor med bara 4 GB RAM var en svår nöt att knäcka, 8 GB RAM gjorde susen. Dock gick det ju med 4 GB, även fast det är i överkant.
    ---
    Analyzing random number sequences was hard, lectures were not very thorough on the topic of analyzing.

    The "identification" scheme was a bit clear as to its purpose. It was confusing to analyze it as an identification scheme when it actually wasn't one.


  15. How much time did you spend on your presentation, including finding a suitable paper and reading the paper?

    1. 22% (4 st) Less than 9 h.
    2. 11% (2 st) 9-14 h.
    3. 44% (8 st) 15-20 h.
    4. 17% (3 st) More than 20 h.

  16. The presentation replaces the third set of problems. Do you think this was a good idea?

    1. 50% (9 st) Yes.
    2. 6% (1 st) No.
    3. 44% (8 st) Neutral.

    Commens on the presentation:

    The idea of the presentation on a different submission for the SHA3 is a very good idea. I followed this competition since its beginning.
    ---
    Har inte presenterat kandidaten än. Men kommer troligen spendera många timmar på den.
    ---
    SHA-3 candidates were a very good choice of topic!
    ---
    All I think is that it's overkill for a 6 hp course to have more than the two homeworks (which are really big). I don't really see the purpose of the presentation either.
    ---
    presentationen var jättebra, man lärde sig mycket om hashfunktioner, men det kändes inte som den alls hade samma omfång (eller att man hade tid) som hemtal1 och 2.
    ---
    A third problem set would be insane!


  17. How many courses apart from the current course did you follow at the same time you followed this coures?

    1. 6% (1 st) Zero.
    2. 17% (3 st) One.
    3. 44% (8 st) Two.
    4. 33% (6 st) Three or four.
    5. 0% (0 st) More than four.


  18. What fraction of your time spend studying during period 1 did you spend on this course?

    1. 0% (0 st) Less than 15%.
    2. 11% (2 st) 15-30%.
    3. 0% (0 st) 30-50%.
    4. 22% (4 st) 50-70%.
    5. 67% (12 st) More than 70%.


  19. The credit for the course is 6hp. What do you think of this compared to other courses?

    1. 22% (4 st) 6hp is good.
    2. 44% (8 st) Should be 7.5hp.
    3. 33% (6 st) Should be 9hp.
    4. 0% (0 st) 6hp is too much.


  20. Suggestions for improvements of the course:

    The homeworks were exciting to do, much more than attending the lectures. In my country, we use to have two different kind of lessons: theorical lectures, same as yours, and more pratical lessons where we apply what we learnt during the lectures on exercices. I think this is very good pedagogical approach.
    ---
    Vore bra om föreläsningsanteckningarna uppdaterades. Tycker nog att de var lite väl tama.
    ---
    The theoretical stuff was covered really quickly. I would have liked to go a bit deeper. A bit more of formal mathematical proofs would have been good. All the exercises where quite practical, you didn't really need that much theory. Maybe combine practical problems with more theoretical exercises.
    ---
    I'd like to learn more about cryptoanalysis.
    But the present matter should not be removed, so
    my suggestion would be to extend the course (to,
    say 7.5hp) and add more cryptoanalysis.

    ---
    Only thing I can think of is to make it bigger. You don't have to do a lot for a passing grade but for a higher grade a lot of time and effort is needed. Compared to other courses the 6 hp seem ridiculous.
    ---
    en bättre bok, kurs på svenska, hjälp på hemtal


  21. More comments on the course:

    Ska man förutsätta att man måste läsa om kursen nästa år om man blir underkänd pga poäng som fattas på någon homework?
    ---
    Nice work Johan!
    ---
    One of the best courses I have read so far.
    ---
    Mycket intressant kurs, har nog aldrig blivit så engagerad i någon annan kurs som när man höll på med inlämningsuppgifterna.


johanh@kth.se

Denna sammanställning har genererats med ACE.