Mohammad Mahmoody




I am an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of Virginia (UVA).

Prior to joining the UVA I was a postdoctoral research associate in the Computer Science Department of Cornell University under the supervision of Professor Rafael Pass.

I received my PhD in 2010 from the Computer Science Department of Princeton University under the supervision of Professor Boaz Barak.

I am interested in theoretical computer science. In particular, I am interested in foundations of cryptography and its interplay with computational complexity. I am also interested in provable bounds in adversarial machine learning.

If you are a (current or prospective) motivated student at the UVA and would like to work with me, you can email me.

Here is my CV (June of 2018). You can also find my research and teaching statements here.

Courses:

  • Spring 2018: Topics in Cryptography (Grad and Undergrad)
  • Fall 2017: Discrete Mathematics (Undergrad)
  • Spring 2017: Theory of Computation (Grad)
  • Fall 2016: Foundations of Cryptography (Undergrad)
  • Fall 2015: Algorithms (Grad)
  • Spring 2015: Topics in Cryptography [Seminar] (Grad and Undergrad)
  • Fall 2014: Cryptography (Grad)
  • Spring 2014: Computational Complexity (Undergrad)

    • Current Students and Postdocs:

  • Mohammad Hajiabadi Postdoc. (Jointly advised with Sanjam Garg.)
  • Dimitris Diochnos Postdoc.

  • Saeed Mahloujifar PhD.
  • Ahmadreza Rahimi PhD.
  • Caleb Smith PhD.

    • Former Students

  • Ameer Mohammed PhD. (2013-2018 - Assistant Professor at Kuwait University.)

  • Saba Eskandarian Masters. (2015-2016 - Now PhD at Stanford.)
  • Soheil Nematihaji Masters (2014-2016).

    • Publications:

  • Limits on the Power of Garbling Techniques for Public-Key Encryption
    with Sanjam Garg, Mohammad Hajiabadi and Ameer Mohammed.
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2018.

  • On the Round Complexity of OT Extension
    with Sanjam Garg, Daniel Masny, and Izaak Meckler.
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2018.

  • Learning under p-Tampering Attacks
    with Saeed Mahloujifar and Dimitrios I. Diochnos.
    Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT) 2018.
    (Also selected to for presentation in ISAIM 2018.)

  • Blockwise p-Tampering Attacks on Cryptographic Primitives, Extractors, and Learners
    with Saeed Mahloujifar.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2017.

  • When does Functional Encryption Imply Obfuscation?
    with Sanjam Garg and Ameer Mohammed.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2017.

  • Lower Bounds on Obfuscation from All-or-Nothing Encryption Primitives
    with Sanjam Garg and Ameer Mohammed.
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2017.

  • On the Power of Hierarchical Identity-Based Encryption
    with Ameer Mohammed.
    Eurocrypt, 2016.

  • On the Impossibility of Virtual Black-Box Obfuscation in Idealized Models
    with Ameer Mohammed and Soheil Nematihaji.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2016-A.

  • Lower Bounds on Assumptions behind Indistinguishability Obfuscation
    with Ameer Mohammed, Soheil Nematihaji, Rafael Pass, and abhi shelat.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2016-A.

  • On the Impossibility of Cryptography with Tamperable Randomness
    with Per Austrin, Kai-Min Chung, Rafael Pass, and Karn Seth.
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2014.
    Invited to Algorithmica Journal.

  • On the Power of Public-key Encryption in Secure Computation
    with Hemanta K. Maji and Manoj Prabhakaran.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2014.

  • Can Optimally Fair Coin Tossing be Based on One-Way Functions?
    with Dana Dachman-Soled and Tal Malkin.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2014.

  • Limits of Random Oracles in Secure Computation
    with Hemanta K. Maji and Manoj Prabhakaran.
    Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS) 2014.

  • Languages with Efficient Zero-Knowledge PCPs are in SZK
    with David Xiao.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2013.

  • On the Power of Nonuniformity in Proofs of Security
    with Kai-Min Chung, Huijia Lin, and Rafael Pass.
    Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS) 2013.

  • Publicly Verifiable Proofs of Sequential Work
    with Tal Moran and Salil Vadhan.
    Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS) 2013.

  • The Curious Case of Noninteractive Commitments: On the Power of Black-Box vs. Non-Black-Box Use of Primitives
    with Rafael Pass.
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2012.

  • On Efficient Zero-Knowledge PCPs
    with Yuval Ishai and Amit Sahai.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2012.
    Invited to Journal of Cryptology.

  • On Black-Box Reductions between Predicate Encryption Schemes
    with Vipul Goyal, Virendra Kumar, and Satya Lokam.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2012.

  • Time-Lock Puzzles in the Random Oracle Model
    with Tal Moran and Salil Vadhan.
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2011.

  • On Black-Box Complexity of Optimally-Fair Coin-Tossing
    with Dana Dachman-Soled, Yehuda Lindell, and Tal Malkin.
    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) 2011.

  • Interactive Locking, Zero-Knowledge PCPs, and Unconditional Cryptography
    with Vipul Goyal, Yuval Ishai, and Amit Sahai.
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2010.

  • On the Power of Randomized Reductions and the Checkability of SAT
    with David Xiao
    Computational Complexity Conference (CCC) 2010.

  • A New Sampling Protocol and Applications to Basing Cryptogaphic Primitives on the Hardness of NP
    with Iftach Haitner and David Xiao
    Computational Complexity Conference (CCC) 2010.

  • Merkle Puzzles are Optimal
    with Boaz Barak
    International Cryptography Conference (Crypto) 2009.
    Invited to Journal of Cryptology.
    Download the full version from here.

  • Load Sensitive Topology Control: Towards Minimum Energy Consumption in Dense Ad Hoc Sensor Networks
    with A. Nayyeri, S. Zarifzadeh, and N. Yazdani
    Computer Networks, Vol. 52, pp. 493--513, 2008.

  • Lower Bounds on Signatures from Symmetric Primitives
    with Boaz Barak
    Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS), 2007.

  • On Rainbow Cycles in Edge Colored Complete Graphs
    with S. Akbari, O. Etesami, and H. Mahini
    Australasian Journal of Combinatorics, Vol. 37, pp. 33--42, 2007.

  • Transversals in Long Rectangular Arrays
    with S. Akbari, O. Etesami, H. Mahini, and A. Sharifi
    Discrete Mathematics, Vol. 306, pp. 3011--3013, 2006.

    • Manuscripts:

  • A Note on Black-Box Separations for Indistinguishability Obfuscation
    with Ameer Mohammed, Soheil Nematihaji, Rafael Pass, and abhi shelat.

  • Black Boxes, Incorporated, (a survey)
    with Avi Wigderson.

  • Studies in the Efficiency and (versus) Security of Cryptographic Tasks
    Ph.D Thesis, Princeton University, 2010.

  • Unprovable Security of Two-Message Zero Knowledge
    with Kai-Min Chung, Edward Lui, and Rafael Pass.