Congratulations to Geoffrey Smith, professor in the School of Computing and Information Sciences, on being honored with the prestigious European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software (ETAPS) Test of Time Award for his paper titled, “On the Foundations of Quantitative Information Flow”.

 

Before this paper, the research community widely relied on the idea of measuring an internet attacker’s knowledge about a secret using Shannon entropy. Dr. Smith’s paper represents a cornerstone in the field of secure information flow, causing a shift in the community towards a more suitable measure, Rényi min-entropy. The paper has been highly cited since being published in 2009.

 

The ETAPS Test of Time Award recognizes outstanding papers published more than 10 years in the past in one of the constituent conferences of ETAPS. As the recipient of this award, Dr. Smith will receive a recognition plaque and a cash prize.

 

This is a great recognition for Dr. Smith, who’s been at the College of Engineering & Computing, since 1994. He is also an author of a new book titled, “The Science of Quantitative Information Flow” which presents a mathematical theory explaining what information flow is and how it can be assessed. It addresses the fundamental challenge that practical requirements frequently conflict with the goal of preserving confidentiality.

 

We are proud of Dr. Smith and his accomplishments throughout the years.