The Center for Cryptography and Distributed Systems – UBA, in co-organization with LambdaClass, held the first edition of the Seminar on Coding Theory, Low-Degree Testing and PIOPs. Over four biweekly sessions, with rotating venues across the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires and the LambdaClass offices, more than 35 people joined a high-level technical training space on frontier topics in mathematical cryptography.
A frontier program, rooted in classical mathematics
The seminar aimed to introduce the applications of Linear Coding Theory to zero-knowledge proof schemes (ZK proofs), tracing the path from the foundations to modern protocols. The contents covered the fundamentals of Reed-Solomon codes, the combinatorial limits of decoding and the Berlekamp-Welch algorithm, list decoding with the Sudan and Guruswami-Sudan algorithms, and finally Interactive Oracle Proofs of Proximity (IOPPs) with the FRI protocol as the canonical case of efficient low-degree testing.
The program was led by Manuel Puebla, Adjunct Professor at the Department of Mathematics of FIUBA and head of the Palacios-Puebla chair at the CBC, with a background in Pure Mathematics and Electronic Engineering from UBA and more than two decades of teaching experience. His research interests lie at the intersection of algebraic geometry, coding theory and high-dimensional probability.
Bringing together knowledge, institutions and sectors
One of the most significant aspects of this first edition was the way it was built: collaboratively, integrating actors with different traditions and logics.
The public university contributed its spaces, its academic community and the institutional rigor built over decades of scientific production. The Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering were not merely venues for the seminar: their presence gave it a framework of legitimacy and belonging that would be hard to replicate outside the university sphere. LambdaClass, for its part, brought from the private sector the perspective of those who work with these technologies in concrete applications, also contributing its physical space, the outreach and the organization.
A community in the making
Among the more than 35 participants of the seminar were students, teachers, researchers and professionals with diverse profiles.
This highlights something we have been observing from the Center: there is a real demand for specialized training in mathematical cryptography in Argentina, and the formal channels — undergraduate courses, graduate programs, conferences — do not always manage to meet it with the speed and specificity that the field requires. Intensive seminars, with high-level instructors and focused content, are an effective way to respond to that demand.
A first edition that opens the way
This experience reinforces our conviction to keep building training spaces of this kind. From the Center for Cryptography and Distributed Systems – UBA we intend to hold new editions of the seminar, deepening and expanding the contents, and to incorporate new topics that continue to contribute to the development of the field in the region.
The goal is to consolidate a local community of practice in applied cryptography: a space where mathematical rigor, technological application and the training of new generations of professionals and researchers coexist and reinforce one another.
We thank Manuel Puebla for his dedication and enthusiasm, the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering of UBA for hosting us, LambdaClass for its commitment and for opening its doors to this initiative, and all the participants who made this seminar a genuine learning space.