Halmos College Faculty Member Awarded Patent in Korea

This fall, Halmos College associate professor of mathematics Abdelkrim Bourouihiya, Ph.D. received a patent in Korea for his invention entitled, “Data Adaptive Compression and Data Encryption using Kronecker Products”. It was granted two US Patents in 2018 and 2019, a Japanese Patent in 2019, and a North Korean Patent in 2020.

Currently, there are two main methods for compressing digital data files to minimize storage, handling and transmission speed. In lossy compression, certain (especially redundant) information is permanently deleted to reduce the file; upon decompression, only the retained information remains. Lossy compression is often used for audio/video/image files (e.g., JPEG files) where some loss of the original information is not detected by most users. In contrast, in lossless compression, all data in the file is retained after compression and subsequent decompression. This approach is often used for text or spreadsheet files where losing any data may be problematic, however, transmission velocity is hindered due to the large files sizes.

Bourouihiya developed a novel method of encoding data that can be used with either approach to enhance compression/decompression, thereby reducing size of digital files and increasing transmission speed without sacrificing the amount of data stored. Some digital files processed by this method had a compression ratio approximately two to four times higher than JPEG files but with minimal loss of data. The method also allows for parallel processing which greatly reduces compression/decompression time. By using this approach, data is stored using less memory, processed in a shorter time, and complete recovery is achieved. Further, the data can be encrypted and subsequently decrypted at the decompression stage, ensuring data security.