About

The Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software or CAISS for short, is one of the research centers of the City College of New York. Founded by Gilbert Baumslag, its original scope was research at the intersection of Group Theory and Theoretical Computer Science. Following some exciting work applying group theory to secure encryption, the Center's focus shifted to becoming a leading research institution in Cryptography and Network Security. CAISS members do research and publish academic papers in a variety of areas, from the theoretical foundations of cryptography to the design and implementation of cryptographic protocols.
 

Current research projects at CAISS include: new group-theoretic based encryption schemes, security for cloud computing, privacy-preserving and anonymous communication techniques, identity-based key management, password-based protocols, etc. Some of this projects are described in more detail in the "Projects" section of this website. 

CAISS continues to manage the New York Group Theory Cooperative which organizes New York Group Theory Seminar, held at the CUNY Graduate Center and is host to and participates in a number of research projects world wide. The New York Group Theory Seminar is probably the longest continuously running research seminar in New York. It has been held for more than 50 years. There are usually 20 seminars every academic year. 

CAISS supports or has supported, a number of additional open source projects including MAGNUS and the computational algebra package AXIOM. In addition CAISS is involved in fostering research for gifted high school students, mentoring undergraduates, masters and doctoral students in mathematics and computer science. 

Support for CAISS has been provided by the National Science Foundation, the deans of Science and Engineering, the Provost of the City College of New York, and the Chancellor of the City University of New York.