Private information retrieval from coded storage

Prof. Camilla Hollanti

Aalto University, Finland

Abstract:

Private information retrieval (PIR) addresses the question of how to retrieve data items from a database or cloud without disclosing information about the identity of the data items retrieved. The area has received renewed attention in the context of PIR from coded storage. Here, the files are distributed over the servers according to a storage code instead of mere replication. Alongside with the basic principles of PIR, we will review recent capacity results and retrieval schemes, including a general framework allowing one to adjust the scheme according to the suspected collections of colluding servers.

The talk is based on joint work with Salim El Rouayheb, Ragnar Freij-Hollanti, Oliver Gnilke, David Karpuk, and Razan Tajeddine.

Biography:

Camilla Hollanti received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Turku, Finland, in 2003 and 2009, respectively, both in pure mathematics. Her research interests lie within applications of algebraic number theory to wireless communications, as well as in combinatorial and coding theoretic methods related to distributed storage systems.

For 2004-2011 Hollanti was with the University of Turku. Since Oct. 2011, she has been with the Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis at Aalto University, where she currently works as Associate Professor and leads a research group in Algebra, Number Theory, and Applications.

Hollanti is an editor of the AIMS Journal on Advances in Mathematics of Communications. She is a coauthor of 80 scientific peer-reviewed publications and a recipient of several grants, including five Academy of Finland grants in 2010-2016. In 2014, she received the World Cultural Council Special Recognition Award for young researchers.

She received a TUM IAS Hans Fischer Fellowship and will spend her sabbatical at TUM from November 2017 until May 2018.