by Kimberly G. Waters., Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2002., Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-46).

Conversational interfaces have received much attention as a promising natural communication channel between humans and computers. A typical conversational interface consists of three major systems: speech understanding, dialog management and spoken language generation. In such a conversational interface, speech recognition…

Signature schemes are fundamental cryptographic primitives, useful as a stand-alone application, and as a building block in the design of secure protocols and other cryptographic objects. In this thesis, we study both the uses that signature schemes find in protocols,…

Current methods for bipedal walking control include playback of recorded joint motion and the derivation of dynamic equations to map desired forces at the body to the required torques at the joints. Both methods require a significant amount of up-front…

A transmitter antenna array has the ability to direct data simultaneously to multiple receivers within a wireless network, creating potential for a more integrated view of algorithmic system components. In this thesis, such a perspective informs the design of two…

(cont.) to the verifier., We consider an implementation of a weakened notion of zero-knowledge (weak ZK) where the simulator is also allowed to depend on the distinguisher as well, so this type of ZK entails exhibiting an efficient simulator for…

If we are to understand the innately human ability to solve complex problems, we must first understand the cognitive processes that allow us to combine different kinds of knowledge, to learn new things and to communicate with other people. I…

If we are to understand human-level intelligence, we need to understand how meanings can be learned without explicit instruction. I take a step toward that understanding by focusing on the symbol-grounding problem, showing how symbols can emerge from a system…

Communication over interference channels poses challenges not present for the more traditional additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels. In order to approach the information limits of an interference channel, interference mitigation techniques need to be integrated with channel coding and…

Recent advances in biology have afforded scientists with the knowledge that polysaccharides play an active role in modulating cellular activities. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are one such family of polysaccharides that play a very important role in regulating the functions of numerous…