Cryptology/plaintext

Cryptology is CTY's newest and hottest math course. It offers an engaging curriculum, combining mathematical and historical background with hands-on cryptography and cryptanalysis. With over two thousand years of code-making and code-breaking to experience, the subject is anything but dull. As a result, Cryptology has spread like wildfire, to nearly every CTY site, but has it spread too fast for its own good?

Basic Information

• Course name: Cryptology
• Course code: CODE
• Subject area: Mathematics
• Sites offered: Carlisle, Kaneohe, Lancaster, Los Angeles, Loudonville, St. Mary's City
• Prerequisite: none

History

The history of Cryptography (the course) is brief, but compelling. In 2000, Stefan Treatman, then a Calculus instructor at Lancaster, was inspired by his work at the NSA, and filled out a proposal for a new course in cryptology. Normally, it takes two years or more for a course proposal to become a newly offered course, but the year-round staff at Baltimore was particularly interested in offering a new math course, and they were sufficiently impressed by Stefan's proposal that they set things up for Cryptology to be offered at Lancaster in 2001. In Session 1, two sections of Cryptology were offered: one was taught by Stefan, while "Sideshow" David Perry taught the other. Both men were working at the NSA during the rest of the year, so they were eminently suited to teach the (unclassified) details of codes, both historic and modern.

The first session of Cryptology was a great success. In fact, the course proved to be so popular, that when Sideshow had to teach Number Theory in Session 2, leaving but a single section of Cryptology, the administration considered hiring a second TA for Stefan, so he could teach a double-sized class. Stefan wound up teaching a regular class with a single TA that session, but things were looking bright for the future of the course. The next year, Cryptology was exported to other sites -- Sideshow, who was a veteran instructor at Lancaster, was asked to teach Crypto in Carlisle for one sesison of 2002. The expansion has continued, and now, Cryptology is offered at six of the eight sites. This makes Cryptology the most widely taught math course, equal in site coverage to Game Theory, and more prevalent than Math Sequence.

The Curriculum

Cryptology (the subject) is the study of codes: making codes, and breaking them. Well, to be fully accurate, I should say "codes and ciphers" -- you will learn the distinction during the first day or two of class. Students learn the details of some of the most historically important ciphers, some dating back to Julius Caesar, others as cutting-edge as quantum computing. In order to fully understand these ciphers, and to learn to break them in particular, some mathematical background is needed. Students will accumulate an arsenal of techniques in probability, combinatorics, and number theory, to be properly armed against the onslaught of ciphers. In addition to going up against some of cryptography's greatest hits, students will also apply the principles of of cryptography to design their own codes and ciphers. In short, the "Black Chambers" of yore are conveniently brought to the CTY classroom.

One thing that sets Cryptology apart from other math courses at CTY is its interdisciplinary nature. Although the emphasis in the course is on mathematics, many cryptanalytic techniques bring linguistics into play as well. Furthermore, each cipher has its place in history: royals have been executed, treasures have remained hidden, and battles have been decided by the strength or weakness of a cipher. These features give Cryptology great crossover appeal, and make Cryptology an excellent choice for a student who has some interest in math, but is wary of taking something as "hard-core" as Game Theory or Number Theory.

The Instructors

Although the math involved in Cryptology is, in general, not too complicated, the applications are rather specialized. Thus, Cryptography demands an instructor with some degree of specialization as well. While both of the instructors at Lancaster are experts in the field, other sites have not been so lucky. Since Cryptology has partially displaced Math Sequence at many sites, some sections outside Lancaster have had instructors with little experience outside the high school curriculum. In one unfortunate instance, one section in 2002 was so poorly taught that many parents asked for a tuition refund -- and got one. Other instructors contacted Stefan or Sideshow for guidance. Hopefully, as Cryptology grows older, its instructors will be more familiar with the material, but be careful for now. If you are planning to take Cryptology at a site other than Lancaster, you may want to ask others who took it at the same site about their instructor. If you are uncertain, I must stress that the curriculum is quite engaging, and just might make up for a mediocre instructor.

Conclusion

Cryptology has become one of the most popular math courses at CTY, no doubt due to the strength of its curriculum. Its rapid growth has led to some problems with the quality of instruction, but these are probably no more than growing pains. Furthermore, those few problems have done little to hurt the demand for Cryptology. It has become so widely offered, that it is hard to believe that as recently as 2000, Cryptology was little more than a good idea.