Summer SCAMP Program
The Special Conference on Applied Mathematical Problems (SCAMP) is an intensive summer program where academic visitors work with our research staff to address scientific problems arising in national security. CCR Princeton has run SCAMPs since 1964. Currently, SCAMP programs are hosted at three IDA centers, namely CCR Princeton, CCR La Jolla, and CCS Bowie.
Typically, SCAMP visitors include a mix of new and returning participants, depending upon individual interest in the particular problem set. Those having an outstanding talent for our problems may also be invited to join our research staff.
SCAMP kicks off with two weeks of seminars describing the problems of interest and reviewing relevant theory and practice. Over the next eight weeks, participants work on the problems most interesting to them. Joint work is encouraged and informal sessions or lectures are used to present partial results or ideas which often stimulate better ones. Collaboration—early and often—is a hallmark of our work at CCR Princeton, perhaps much more than in the academic world.
Our work relies heavily on traditional pillars of cryptology such as algebra, number theory, combinatorics, probability and statistics. Nevertheless, we know from experience that critical and often unexpected contributions can come from many directions, and so we seek to maintain expertise in a wide variety of mathematical and scientific fields ranging from topology, algebraic geometry and harmonic analysis to information theory, machine learning and physics. Working at CCR Princeton, you will have extraordinary opportunities to turn abstract theory into an effective tool for solving real-world problems. This will enhance your understanding of the theory and its ramifications, and reward you with the exhilaration of obtaining results of immediate and substantial importance.
