How should we store a large database using several servers? We want to cope with server failure, repair such failures efficiently, and maintain user privacy. There has been exciting progress in this area over the past few years, using techniques from coding theory, set systems, finite field theory and finite geometry. This one-day meeting surveyed some of these highlights. Click on the talk titles below for slides of the talks, where available.
Speakers:
Tuvi Etzion (Technion), Salim El Rouayheb (Illinois Institute of Technology), P. Vijay Kumar (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore), Alex Vardy (UC San Diego)
Venue:
Moore Building, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX (note correct postcode, in contrast to an early flyer!). Number 12 on this map.
Timetable: Friday 8th July 2016
10:00-10:30 Coffee
10:30-11:30 P. Vijay Kumar Coding for Distributed Storage: An Overview
11:45-12:30 Alex Vardy Private Information Retrieval without Storage Overhead: Coding Instead of Replication (Part 1)
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:15 Alex Vardy Private Information Retrieval without Storage Overhead: Coding Instead of Replication (Part 2)
14:15-15:15 Salim El Rouayheb Private Information Retrieval from Coded Data
15:15-15:45 Tea
15:45-16:45 Tuvi Etzion Combinatorial framework for network coding, distributed storage, and PIR codes
Organiser: Simon Blackburn s.blackburn@rhul.ac.uk
Registration was free, and funding was available for travel and accommodation for UK based researchers (especially PhD students).
This meeting was supported by EPSRC Grant EP/N022114/1 (‘Private Information Retrieval with limited server storage: combinatorics and coding theory’).