About
I am a joint Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park and Georgetown University under the guidance of Professor Jonathan Katz and Professor Justin Thaler. I recently received my PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University and was extremely fortunate to be advised by Professor Jeremiah Blocki. My broad research interests are in Theoretical Cryptography, Efficient Proof/Argument Systems, and Coding Theory.
I was a Graduate Fellow during the Summer of 2019 at the Reichman University (IDC Herzliya) FACT Center under the guidence of Alon Rosen.
I received my M.Sc. in Computer Science from Purdue University in 2019. Prior to that, I received a B.S. in both Mathematics (Hons.) and Information & Computer Science (Hons.) from the University of California, Irvine, and graduated with Campuswide Honors from the Campuswide Honors Collegium (formerly known as the Campuswide Honors Program).
Papers
All authors are listed in alphabetical order by last name. More recent papers appear first.
In Submission
Conference Publications
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Memory-Hard Puzzles in the Standard Model with Applications to Memory-Hard Functions and Resource-Bounded Locally Decodable Codes
Mohammad Hassan Ameri, Alexander R. Block, Jeremiah Blocki
in SCN 2022 [pdf] [doi]
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Time- and Space-Efficient Arguments from Groups of Unknown Order
Alexander R. Block, Justin Holmgren, Alon Rosen, Ron D. Rothblum, Pratik Soni
in CRYPTO 2021 [pdf] [talk] [doi]
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$P_4$-free Partition and Cover Numbers and Applications
Alexander R. Block, Simina Brânzei, Hemanta K. Maji, Himanshi Mehta, Tamalika Mukherjee, Hai H. Nguyen
in ITC 2021 [pdf] [talk] [doi]
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Private and Resource-Bounded Locally Decodable Codes for Insertions and Deletions
Alexander R. Block, Jeremiah Blocki
in ISIT 2021 [pdf] [doi]
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Locally Decodable/Correctable Codes for Insertions and Deletions
Alexander R. Block, Jeremiah Blocki, Elena Grigorescu, Shubhang Kulkarni, Minshen Zhu
in FSTTCS 2020 [pdf] [talk] [doi]
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Public-Coin Zero-Knowledge Arguments with (almost) Minimal Time and Space Overheads
Alexander R. Block, Justin Holmgren, Alon Rosen, Ron D. Rothblum, Pratik Soni
in TCC 2020 [pdf] [talk] [doi]
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Secure Computation with Constant Communication Overhead using Multiplication Embeddings
Alexander R. Block, Hemanta K. Maji, Hai H. Nguyen
in INDOCRYPT 2018 [pdf] [doi]
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Secure Computation using Leaky Correlations (Asymptotically Optimal Constructions)
Alexander R. Block, Divya Gupta, Hemanta K. Maji, Hai H. Nguyen
in TCC 2018 [pdf] [doi]
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Secure Computation based on Leaky Correlations: High Resilience Setting
Alexander R. Block, Hemanta K. Maji, Hai H. Nguyen
in CRYPTO 2017 [pdf] [talk] [doi]
Honors Research Thesis
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Combined Games
Alexander R. Block, Boao Huang
[pdf]
Academic and Scientific Service
Conference Reviews
Journal Reviews
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Information Processing Letters (2021)
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IACR Journal of Cryptology (2022)
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IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (2022)
Academic Organization Positions
Awards
- Purdue Three Minute Thesis Competition Finalist (2022)
- Emil Stefanov Fellowship in Computer Science, Purdue University (2021)
- Outstanding Service to the Department of Computer Science, Purdue University (2021, 2022)
- Chancellor's Award of Distinction, University of California, Irvine (2015)
- Campuswide Honors, Campuswide Honors Collegium, University of California, Irvine (2015)
- Honors in Mathematics, University of California, Irvine (2015)
- Best Poster and Best Presentation, Pacific Coast Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, Mathematical Association of America (2015)
- Founding member of Pi Mu Epsilon - UC Irvine Chapter, University of California, Irvine (2014)
- Dean's Honors List, University of California, Irvine (2012-2015)
Teaching
Graduate Teaching Assistant Positions at Purdue University
- [Fall 2019] Graduate TA for CS 51500 (Graduate Matrix Computations) with Professor David Gleich
- [Spring 2019] Graduate TA for CS 58400 (Graduate Theory of Computation and Computational Complexity) with Professor Simina Brânzei
- [Fall 2016] Graduate TA for CS 55500 (Graduate Cryptography) with Professor Hemanta K. Maji
- [Spring 2016] Graduate TA for CS 18200 (Undergraduate Foundations of Computer Science with Professor Ananth Grama
- [Fall 2015] Graduate TA for CS 18200 (Undergraduate Foundations of Computer Science with Professor Greg Frederickson
