Glossary

This page defines some common non-technical terms and acronyms that you will encounter while working in the CrySP lab. Some terms are related to the field, while others are UW-specific. The university has its own glossary of terms for graduate students. This list has some overlap with the UW list, but it focuses on terms related to CrySP.

• C&D: the Coffee and Donut shop located on the 3rd floor of MC.
• C&O: Combinatorics & Optimization, another department in the Math faculty.
• CACR: the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research. This organization includes members from CS, ECE, C&O, and Sociology with interests in applied cryptography. CrySP is a part of CACR.
• CCS: the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security. See Conferences.
• Comp-I: "PhD Comprehensive-I (Breadth) requirement". This is the part of the CS PhD program that requires students to take graduate courses in a variety of areas. See PhD requirements.
• Comp-II: "PhD Comprehensive-II (Depth) requirement". This is the part of the CS PhD program involving an oral presentation of a research proposal to the student's advisory committe. See PhD requirements.
• CS: Computer Science.
• DC: the Davis Centre, the building housing CrySP and many other CS research groups.
• ECE: Electrical and Computer Engineering, a department in the faculty of Engineering.
• GSA: the Graduate Student Association. This is the non-profit organization made up of graduate students. Their primary functions include running university-wide social events, managing the health and dental plans, and providing money for department-specific associations to run clubs and social events. Our local association is the MathGSA.
• GSO: the Graduate Studies Office. This is the central support unit in the university that manages all graduate studies. They are responsible for most of the administrative work related to our programs.
• HAC: the Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
• ICR: the Institute for Computer Research. A group that facilitates industrial interaction with researchers. Some faculty in CrySP are ICR members. The primary interaction between CrySP students and ICR is booking their seminar rooms.
• IQC: the Institute for Quantum Computing. This research group works on quantum computation with assistance from industrial partners.
• M3: the Mathematics 3 building. It is attached to DC via the bridge on the 3rd floor.
• MathGSA: the Math Graduate Student Association. This organization organizes social events for Math departments using donations from the GSA.
• MC: the Math and Computer building. It is attached to DC with a bridge on the 2nd and 3rd floors in DC (corresponding to the 3rd and 4th floors in MC).
• NDSS: the Network and Distributed Systems Symposium. See Conferences.
• Oakland: normally refers to the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, the top systems security conference. The name comes from the city that originally hosted the conference. See Conferences.
• PETS: the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium. See Conferences.
• PhD candidate: a PhD student that has completed their Comp-II requirement.
• Plaza: the University Plaza located to the east of DC, across ring road. This area has the closest off-campus restaraunts, and is the de facto main entrance to the university (by foot traffic).
• PoPETs: Proceedings on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies, the journal associated with PETS as part of its conference-journal hybrid model. See Conferences.
• Post-doctoral researcher ("post-doc"): a person working on research with a supervisor after they have already completed their doctoral studies. The goal of many post-docs is to work on additional publications before applying for faculty positions. A post-doc is not a student. Post-docs are typically given individual or shared office space separate from the lab.
• QNC: the Quantum-Nano Centre. It is attached to MC with a bridge to the 3rd floor of MC.
• SOUPS: Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security. See Conferences.
• USENIX: usually refers to the USENIX Security Conference. See Conferences.
• UW: the University of Waterloo.
• WiCS: Women in Computer Science, an organization that hosts events, workshops, and provides mentorship and support for women in CS.
• WPES: Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society. See Conferences.