computer science

Rafail Ostrovsky

Rafail Ostrovsky is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Rafail Ostrovsky rather than just read about it. In short: Rafail Ostrovsky is a distinguished professor of computer science and mathematics at UCLA and a well-known researcher in algorithms and cryptography. Biography Rafail Ostrovsky received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1992.

Key takeaways

Rafail Ostrovsky belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rafail Ostrovsky to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rafail Ostrovsky from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rafail Ostrovsky is a distinguished professor of computer science and mathematics at UCLA and a well-known researcher in algorithms and cryptography.

Biography Rafail Ostrovsky received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1992. He is a member of the editorial board of Algorithmica [1], Editorial Board of Journal of Cryptology [2] and Editorial and Advisory Board of the International Journal of Information and Computer Security [3] Archived 2018-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.

Awards 2022 W. Wallace McDowell Award "for visionary contributions to computer security theory and practice, including foreseeing new cloud vulnerabilities and then pioneering corresponding novel solutions" 2021 AAAS Fellow 2021 Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery "for contributions to the foundations of cryptography" 2019 Academia Europaea Foreign Member 2018 RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics "for contributions to the theory and to new variants of secure multi-party computations" 2017 IEEE Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award "for outstanding contributions to cryptographic protocols and systems, enhancing the scope of cryptographic applications and of assured cryptographic security." 2017 IEEE Fellow, "for contributions to cryptography” 2013 IACR Fellow "for numerous contributions to the scientific foundations of cryptography and for sustained educational leadership in cryptography" 1993 Henry Taub Prize

Publications Some of Ostrovsky's contributions to computer science include:

1990 Introduced (with R. Venkatesan and M. Yung) the notion of interactive hashing proved essential for constructing statistical zero-knowledge proofs for NP based on any one-way function (see NOVY and ECCC TR06-075). 1991 Introduced (with M. Yung) the notion of mobile adversary (later renamed proactive security) (see survey of Goldwasser [4] 1990 Introduced the first poly-logarithmic Oblivious RAM (ORAM) scheme. 1993 Proved (with A. Wigderson) equivalence of one-way functions and zero-knowledge [5]. 1996 Introduced (with R. Canetti, C. Dwork and M. Naor) the notion of deniable encryption [6]. 1997 Introduced (with E. Kushilevitz) the first single server private information retrieval scheme [7] . 1997 Showed (with E. Kushilevitz and Y. Rabani) (1+ε) poly-time and poly-size approximate-nearest neighbor search for high-dimensional data for L1-norm and Euclidean space.

References

External links Ostrovsky's home page Some of Ostrovsky's publications

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rafail Ostrovsky

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rafail Ostrovsky claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rafail Ostrovsky before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rafail Ostrovsky ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rafail Ostrovsky

In research: Rafail Ostrovsky appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rafail Ostrovsky in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rafail Ostrovsky is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1963 births, 21st-century American Jews, American computer security academics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rafail Ostrovsky outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Rafail Ostrovsky in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rafail Ostrovsky means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rafail Ostrovsky out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rafail Ostrovsky in simple terms?

Rafail Ostrovsky is a distinguished professor of computer science and mathematics at UCLA and a well-known researcher in algorithms and cryptography. Biography Rafail Ostrovsky received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1992.

Why does Rafail Ostrovsky matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rafail Ostrovsky?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rafail Ostrovsky.