Andrew Bortz
Carnegie Mellon University Office: (412) 268-4751 |
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Andrew Bortz
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I am currently a senior pursuing a dual degree in Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences (with a concentration in Discrete Mathematics and Logic). My current research interests include cryptography, game theory, type theory, and logic.
I have been working on anonymous communication, and other multi-party cryptographic protocols along with Luis von Ahn and Nick Hopper, supervised by Manuel Blum. This work has been partly funded (Summer 2003) by the NSF Aladdin Center, a center in the School of Computer Science dedicated to the study of algorithms and their applications.
Luis von Ahn, Andrew Bortz, and Nicholas J. Hopper. "k-Anonymous Message Transmission." Accepted for publication at ACM CCS 2003. [abstract] [postscript] [pdf]
k-Anonymous Message Transmission, 10/29/2003, at ACM CCS 2003 in Washington, DC. [powerpoint]
Explorations in Anonymous Communication, 8/19/2003, for the Aladdin Center REU Symposium. [powerpoint]
k-Anonymous Message Transmission (short), 7/15/2003, for the NSF site review visit. [powerpoint]
Introduction to Anonymous Communications, 6/24/2003, for the Aladdin Center weekly lunch. [powerpoint]
Spring 2003, Teaching Assistant (Section A), Fundamental Data Structures and Algorithms (15-211), with Peter Lee, Ananda Gunawardena, and Klaus Sutner
Spring 2002, Course Assistant, Fundamental Data Structures and Algorithms (15-211), with Peter Lee, Danny Sleator, Ananda Gunawardena, and Avrim Blum
Fall 2001, Tutor, Principles of Programming (15-212)
I'm working on a trip planning site, something like MapQuest, except designed to intra-city travel, using mass transit and walking. Stay tuned for an alpha version, covering Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas, sometime soon. (Yes, I know someone did it already, and yes, I know they were CMU students. I checked out their site, and the main trip planner is non-functional -- I'm not sure why. If it ever starts working, someone email me please.)
I built for an artificial intelligence class a Checkers player in Java that I am quite proud of. With one minor exception (1 game, yeah, laugh it up!), it went undefeated in the 3 class tournaments. While the player was quite fast (even compared to players written in C and SML) and contained an interesting heuristic, the real secret weapon was a 5-piece endgame database with additional information I computed myself using a hand-built distributed program (also in Java). More details here.
I love to read. And read
and read. Take a look
at my reading list. (Still incomplete,
because the list is big and I am lazy.)
I take pictures. Most are bad, but occasionally I get a good one. ;-) Here are
some pictures from my digital camera.
I like to bike. Sometimes I bike
with the CMU Cycling Club
-- maybe some day I'll be good enough to race.
I have written some bad poetry. I'm not posting it right now. Maybe one night
when I get drunk I'll lose enough sense to do so. (Or maybe before then.
Like wine, I think poetry gets better with age. And some of this stuff is old
enough that I don't remember writing it, which is a good thing.)
(Otherwise known as ways to waste lots of time.)
slashdot.org - You're not a true nerd
if you don't know what this is...
kuro5hin.org - For entertainment purposes
only.
MegaTokyo - This is some funny $%^&!!!
Start from the beginning for hours of laughter.
Ctrl-Alt-Del - Another great
web comic.
