63rd Annual STS (2003-2004)
Finalists
Bruce David Halperin

NEW YORK
Bruce David Halperin, 16, of Dix Hills, developed a new secure, patentable method for many parties to communicate anonymously over the Internet for his Intel Science Talent Search project in computer science. Bruce's method, Anonymous Communication Protocol (ACP), is an extension of a cryptography protocol developed in 1988 that allowed for anonymous communication among a number of users, but allowed only one message to be sent at a time. ACP enables simultaneous, secure communication among many parties while preserving the anonymity of all parties and is compatible with commonly used methods of encryption. Bruce believes his work has practical applications for digital money transfers, electronic voting systems and chat rooms for support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Bruce, who has perfect SAT scores, attends Half Hollow Hills High School East where he is co-president of the Mathletes and is in both the Spanish Honor Society and the French Honor Society. The recipient of many awards, he placed second in the National French Contest. The son of Ira and Judy Halperin, Bruce would like to study computer science or electrical engineering.