CAREER Awardee Investigates Quantum’s ‘Sweet Spot’
Electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Boulat Bash applies quantum methods to super-secret sensing and communication.
Electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Boulat Bash (right) with graduate students Zihao Gong and Michael Bullock.
When someone wants to share truly sensitive information, encrypting the information so adversaries can’t read the content might be enough. However, sending the information covertly, or in a way that covers up the fact that a message was sent at all, is an even safer bet.
Boulat Bash, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has demonstrated how using quantum resources can substantially increase the limit on information that can be sent reliably over a covert channel.
Now, he’s received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for $500,000 for his research in applying quantum resources to covert channels – this time focusing on sensing, rather than communication.
“The CAREER Award is very competitive, and many winners don’t receive it until their second or third try,” said ECE Department Head Tamal Bose. “I am proud of Boulat for winning the award on his first attempt, and excited to see the impact of his work in areas including military intelligence and organizations of civil unrest.”
