Hi there,

My name is Gorjan Popovski and I come from Bitola, Republic of Macedonia, but I'm currently a second year student at Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering in Skopje. I've always been active in this field and I have eight years' worth experience in competitive programming i.e. algorithms for which I've acquired many rewards as stated in my CV. I mostly code in C (I do not take care of my eyes very well) and C++. My hobbies include most of the things related to computing and information sciences and good literature. My native language is Macedonian, although I speak English with greater grammatical correctness.

I have been interested in cryptography for about three years now. It all started when I enrolled on an online course on Coursera held by Dan Boneh when I found out how deeply I am actually fascinated by this field. I have always had an affinity towards computer science and mathematical reasoning, so, naturally, the course had peaked my interest and I absolutely enjoyed working on it, as stated in my CV and by the results of the course exams. Since then I have been delving more and more into the depths of this subject. My most recent awe inspiring experience with cryptography was this past June when I attended the summer school held in Sibenik, Croatia where I had the spectacular opportunity to attend a lecture by the great Joan Daemen! You can imagine how the fact that Vincent Rijmen will be holding this course further spurs my enthusiasm and wish to be one of the lucky participants chosen to attend this course.

I also had some very interesting experiences regarding cryptography at the summer school in Sibenik I previously mentioned. The lectures were simply astonishing. I saw a person (Daniel Genkin) extract data from a machine, solely based on measuring the frequency of the processor! I also met a lot of interesting people and reconvened with some I had already met. When I first began my studies almost two years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a course on the topic "Engineering cryptography software", held by Peter Schwabe, who also was a lecturer at the summer school, at the university I attend in Skopje.

Having said all this, I hope I have conveyed how intrigued I am by cryptography and all it's affiliated sciences, and that I would wholeheartedly like to improve my knowledge on this topic.

I've never been to Belgium, but would like to visit Leuven. Their culture seems very interesting and would be an amazing experience to get acquainted with their way of life and traditions. Of course, this includes abundant

degustation of their famous cuisine.

I consider myself to be a very social person and enjoy making new connections worldwide. I cannot dance or sing, but I've been told that I'm funny and fun to hang out with.

I hope I will be chosen as one of the attending applicants and hope to meet new and interesting people, see new places and learn useful things.

BEST Regards,

GP