PROACT Summer School in Crete
Two months in during my PhD, it was time to attend my first summer school. This summer school PROACT was organised by Konstantina Miteloudi from our lab. The topic of the summer school aligned perfectly with my PhD topic, so after two months of reading papers and watching videos, this was the perfect time to get some live in-depth explanations on the materials!
But then the travel date came closer, and I started to realise I (still) don’t like airplanes. And the logistics about packing your suitcase, stressing about the suitcase’s dimensions to fit in the provided boxes at the airport, stressing about “weird” liquids you want to take in the plane (i.e. your toothpaste etc.). When travelling with plane, my stress level has roughly three phases: reaching the airport in time, getting through security without hassle, and landing safely. Yes, I know statistically the airplane should be the safest travel option available, but I don’t really like being on 10km of height… Luckily it was very cloudy so I just imagined these clouds to be soft pillows or snow.
The summer school starts on Monday, but we arrived on Saturday evening. That would mean we have Sunday to explore Crete! We booked a hike 17km through Samaria Gorge, but unfortunately it got cancelled due to landslides. We opted for another tour instead, a ferry to Balos and Gramvoussa. I have never seen such clear blue water. Of course, we enjoyed a swim here.
From the beach, we could hike up to a viewpoint where an old Venetian castle is located. From this point, you could look over the island. And the view is stunning! It looks like a picture from a postcard.
After our daytrip, we went back to the hotel to wash of the five layers of sunscreen and prepare for the summer school. On Monday, there was a student session where PhD students could present their work. And of course, some slides still needed to be finetuned.
On Monday, the day was kicked-off by a great tutorial from one of our lectures on TVLA. Getting directly hands-on exercises helped my brain to stay active during the heat of the day. The tutorial was followed by a lecture on design challenges for security accelerators and closed by the student sessions. After the student sessions, we had a welcome reception with amazing greek food and a pretty sunset view.
Tuesday was again a packed day with lectures on topics on embedded security challenges for post quantum cryptography and side-channel&fault attacks on ML-KEM. The afternoon we had a hands-on tutorial on cryptographic hardware optimisation for ASIC. When the tutorial was finished at 5pm, we decided to cool off by a swim on the beach.
Wednesday was shorter than Tuesday, as it only included three lectures on AI&Physical attacks, device technologies and automated verification for physical security. These talks lasted until the lunch. Afterwards, we went to get lunch with all the PhD’s and PostDocs from CESCA in a cute place in the city center. Afterwards, we went shopping to get presents for friends & family and some pretty dresses for ourselves.
Yes, this is the entrance to the lunch place!
Thursday was the last day of the summer school until lunch, concluding with cryptographic algorithm design and deep-learning side-channel analysis. We grabbed some lunch and had to travel to the airport. During the flight, it was a perfect time to digest all the material, finalise my notes and finish my crossword puzzle.
Bye Crete, I’ll miss you! For sure, I will come back to take the hike!
