Angelos Pelecanos

I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at UC Berkeley, fortunate to be advised by Prof. Shafi Goldwasser.

My research interests lie in the theoretical analysis of practical cryptosystems, such as block ciphers, and in cryptography in the quantum age.

In Spring 2022 I received an M.Eng. degree from MIT, where I was lucky to work under the supervision of Prof. Vinod Vaikuntanathan. I graduated with a bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering and in Mathematics in Spring 2021 from the same institution. I am grateful for the mentorship of Prof. Virginia Vassilevska Williams during my undergraduate studies.

Email: apelecan at berkeley dot edu.

Publications

How Fast Does the Inverse Walk Approximate a Random Permutation? [ePrint]
Tianren Liu, Angelos Pelecanos, Stefano Tessaro, Vinod Vaikuntanathan
In submission

More Efficient Approximate k-wise Independent Permutations from Random Reversible Circuits via log-Sobolev Inequalities. [ePrint], [ArXiv], [Gil Kalai's blog], [Twitter]
Lucas Gretta, William He, Angelos Pelecanos
SODA 2025

On the Computational Hardness of Quantum One-Wayness. [pdf]
Bruno Cavalar, Eli Goldin, Matthew Gray, Peter Hall, Yanyi Liu, Angelos Pelecanos
In submission

Classical vs Quantum Advice under Classically-Accessible Oracle. [pdf]
Xingjian Li, Qipeng Liu, Angelos Pelecanos, Takashi Yamakawa
ITCS 2024

Layout Graphs, Random Walks, and the t-wise independence of of SPN block ciphers. [pdf], [GitHub]
Tianren Liu, Angelos Pelecanos, Stefano Tessaro, Vinod Vaikuntanathan
CRYPTO 2023

Non-Asymptotic t-wise Independence of Substitution-Permutation Networks. [pdf]
MEng Thesis.
Note: The proof of the theorem of Section 4 (O(t)-round MiMC is t-wise independent) has a bug.

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science		2022 - Present
University of California Berkeley
M.Eng. in Computer Science and Engineering		2021 - 2022
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering and Mathematics		2017 - 2021
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Talks

More Efficient Approximate k-wise Independent Permutations from Random Reversible Circuits via log-Sobolev Inequalities

MIT CIS Seminar, Cambridge, Fall 2024.

On the t-wise Independence of Block Ciphers

CMU Theory Lunch, Pittsburgh, Fall 2024. [slides], [video]

Classical vs Quantum Advice and Proofs under Classically-Accessible Oracle

Quantum Complexity Workshop, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Spring 2024. [video]
ITCS 2024, Berkeley, Spring 2024.
Quantum Brainstorming Session, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Spring 2023.

Layout Graphs, Random Walks, and the t-wise independence of SPN block ciphers

CRYPTO 2023, Santa Barbara, Summer 2023.
NYU Crypto Reading Group, Fall 2023.

Activities

Reviewer for STOC 2024, FOCS 2024, SODA 2025, CRYPTO 2023, ITCS 2023, 2024, QIP 2023, 2024, TQC 2024, ICALP 2024.
Teaching Assistant for Quantum Query Complexity, PCMI Graduate Summer School, July 2023

Teaching

Advanced Algorithms (MIT 6.854)		Fall 2021
Teaching Assistant
Design and Analysis of Algorithms (MIT 6.046)		Fall 2020, Spring 2021
Teaching Assistant

Professional Experience

Hudson River Trading		Summer 2021
Algorithm Developer Intern
Citadel		Summer 2019
Software Engineering Intern
Tech Square Trading		Winter 2019
Quantitative Trading Intern
QuantCo		Summer 2018
Software Engineering Intern