NTT Research Collaboration Advances Cryptography and Blockchain Research

NTT Research CIS Lab Focused on Information Security Announces Joint Research Agreement

Palo Alto, Calif. – August 31, 2020 – NTT Research, Inc., a division of NTT (TYO:9432), today announced that its Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab has reached a joint research agreement with Stanford University. The four-year agreement with Stanford covers basic and fundamental research topics of cryptography and blockchain. The principal investigator will be Dr. Dan Boneh, professor of computer science and electrical engineering and co-director of the Stanford Computer Security Lab at Stanford University.

One of three divisions at NTT Research, the CIS Lab is engaged in basic research of cryptography with the potential for long-term impact. Directed by NTT Fellow Tatsuaki Okamoto, the CIS Lab is focused on foundational research problems in cryptography and blockchain. NTT Research Distinguished Scientist Brent Waters, who heads the CIS Lab’s cryptography research group, as well as NTT Research Senior Scientist Hoeteck Wee, will be involved in the cryptography research with Stanford. Dr. Shinichiro Matsuo, a research professor at Georgetown University who heads the CIS Lab’s blockchain group at NTT Research, will be involved in the joint research with Stanford on blockchain.

Professor Boneh, who also heads the applied cryptography group at Stanford, focuses his research on applications of cryptography to computer security. His work includes cryptosystems with novel properties, security for mobile devices, web security and cryptoanalysis. He is the author of more than 150 publications in the field and a recipient of the 2014 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) prize (for ground-breaking contributions to the development of pairing-based cryptography and its application in identity-based encryption), the 2013 Godel prize, the RSA award in mathematics, and six best paper awards. In 2016, Dr. Boneh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

“The NTT Research CIS Lab is tremendously fortunate to be engaging with some of the world’s leading academics, as we continue to focus on foundational research problems,” said CIS Lab Director Okamoto. “We are looking forward to seeing the collaboration between Professor Boneh and his counterparts in the CIS Lab.”

The scope of work for the four-year agreement with Stanford includes several important areas of basic research in cryptography and blockchain. “This is a great opportunity to collaborate with a skilled group of computer scientists and a team that is willing to address questions that have yet to be answered,” said Professor Boneh. “We are eager to get started.”

NTT Research actively explores opportunities to work with experts in its three fields of study. Earlier this year, it announced a collaboration with Stanford University’s Department of Applied Physics on a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded initiative into Coherent Ising Machines (CIMs). In addition, last fall NTT Research entered an Industrial Partnership between its CIS Lab and the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley; reached joint research agreements between its CIS Lab and UCLA and Georgetown; set up joint research agreements between its Physics and Informatics (PHI) Lab and six universities (CalTech, Cornell, Michigan, MIT, Stanford and Swinburne), one US Federal Agency (NASA’s Ames Research Center) and one private quantum computing software company (1QBit); and reached a joint research agreement between its Medical and Informatics (MEI) Lab and the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

About NTT Research

NTT Research opened its Palo Alto offices in July 2019 as a new Silicon Valley startup to conduct basic research and advance technologies that promote positive change for humankind. Currently, three labs are housed at NTT Research: the Physics and Informatics (PHI) Lab, the Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab, and the Medical and Health Informatics (MEI) Lab. The organization aims to upgrade reality in three areas: 1) quantum information, neuro-science and photonics; 2) cryptographic and information security; and 3) medical and health informatics. NTT Research is part of NTT, a global technology and business solutions provider with an annual R&D budget of $3.6 billion.

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