Join I-SENSE for an exciting guest lecture from Erkay Savas, Ph.D., Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Science, Sabanci University.

Lecture Title: RISQrypt: Fast, Secure, and Configurable HW/SW Co-Design for Post-Quantum Cryptography

Abstract: As the transition to post-quantum cryptography accelerates, the need for high-performance and side-channel-resistant hardware architectures has become more critical than ever. This lecture introduces RISQrypt, a RISC-V–based hardware/software co-design framework that delivers fast, secure, and configurable acceleration for leading post-quantum cryptographic standards — CRYSTALS-Kyber (key encapsulation) and CRYSTALS-Dilithium (digital signature).

RISQrypt achieves this through a unified architecture that integrates dedicated arithmetic units and hardware countermeasures to ensure resilience against side-channel attacks, while maintaining flexibility across cryptographic primitives. Its scalable Number Theoretic Transform (NTT) engine supports multiple moduli and parameter sets, enabling efficient adaptation to various lattice-based schemes. The design offers a portable, fast and energy-efficient foundation for secure embedded and IoT platforms.

Dr. Savas will present the architectural design principles, co-design methodology, and implementation results of RISQrypt on FPGA platforms. Performance and security metrics will be compared with existing state-of-the-art accelerators, demonstrating significant improvements in throughput, configurability, and side-channel resistance. The lecture will conclude with a discussion of future directions, including energy-aware optimization, multi-scheme scalability and integration into post-quantum secure processors.