A decyphering and encrypting algorithm developed by Péter Énekes and GergÅ‘ Köpenczei, two 19-year-old students, won a Silver Medal at Hungary's Young Scientific and Innovation Talent Contest.

The two students started researching their topic at maths class, and, thanks to their result in Hungary, they got as far as Intel's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world's largest international pre-college science competition.

One of the unique features of their discovery is that it is based on an arithmetic property of the function s(n). This is the first time that this property has been used in the area of cryptography.

Unfortunately, the students' algorithm can't be patented, since mathematics is a scientific discipline in the public domain. This, however, doesn't deter the young innovators.

The Hungarian Association for Innovation has been sponsoring Hungarian students' entry to the ISEF since 1995. Hungary has shown outstanding performance at the international competition. In the past 17 years, only on two occasions have Hungarian students returned without a prize.

Péter Énekes and GergÅ‘ Köpenczei are planning to study IT engineering and join the Students' Research Society at their college.

We hope to see more similar Hungarian success stories in the future.

Source: index.hu