Prof. Alanwar accepted into the Emmy Noether Program

In his funded project, Alanwar demonstrates the effectiveness of applying set-based theory within the binary domain to address diverse problems across various domains. His motivation stems from the established concept of so-called zonotopes – geometric sets created by adding several vectors – and their extension into logical zonotopes within the realm of reachability analysis for dynamical systems over real vector spaces.

Building upon this concept, he has introduced a novel binary set representation, namely logical zonotopes, which extend the principles of zonotopes into the binary domain The difference: while traditional zonotopes are based on real numbers, logical zonotopes are based on binary values – i.e., zeros and ones. They can describe an exponential number of system states using compact and fewer vectors and are therefore a very efficient representation method.

The goal is to create a start-up

In his previous study, Alanwar illustrates the potential of his construct for three use cases: formal verification of Boolean functions, safety verification of a protocol for road intersections and finding the key of a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR). In all cases, logical zonotopes enable more efficient computations in comparison to other traditional methods.

“I will further develop the logical zonotope and its specific applications – for example, in digital circuits or Identifying and breaking insecure ciphers,” says Alanwar, describing his plans for the coming years. The funding will enable me to hire two doctoral students to support me in this work.” In this way, the concept should become practically applicable and ultimately ready for the market. At an advanced stage of the project, there are even plans to found a start-up that will focus on testing digital circuits.