About Us

Wombat is an academic project whose main objective is to explore the feasibility of end-to-end verifiable voting. To this end, we put a strong emphasis on simplicity of design and compatibility with more traditional, paper based, voting systems.

The project was, for the most part, developed by IDC undergraduate students, aided by students from Tel Aviv University. The mixnet system used by Wombat is called Verificatum and was developed by Douglas Wikstrom from KTH Stockholm.

Project leaders

Alon RosenDr. Alon Rosen, IDC Herzliya
Alon’s research interests lie in the foundations of cryptography. Recently, he has also taken interest in cryptographic voting systems. Visit his website.

Amnon Ta ShmaProf. Amnon Ta-shma, Tel Aviv University
Amnon’s research interests lie in the foundations of computer science. He is also interested in privacy and specifically in cryptographic voting. Visit his website.

Ben RivaBen Riva, Tel Aviv University
Ben is currently studying towards his PhD. He is interested in cryptography and security, with emphasis on electronic voting and cloud computing. Visit his website.

Yoni Ben-NunJonathan (Yoni) Ben-Nun
Yoni is a software development and data security expert with over ten years of experience consulting and leading development teams. He is interested in bridging the gap between the theoretical and the practical by building innovative systems offering integrity and privacy.

Technical group

Tomer GabbaiTomer Gabbai, IDC Herzliya
Tomer is a third year Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past two years, designing and implementing the graphical user interface and logic layer of the voting booth, including synchronization with cryptographic libraries.

Doron SharonDoron Sharon, IDC Herzliya
Doron is a third year Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past two years, designing and implementing the logic layer of the voting booth, including synchronization with hardware devices and cryptographic libraries.

Shiran KleidermanShiran Kleiderman, IDC Herzliya
Shiran is a third year Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past two years, providing a comprehensive cryptographic library as well as supporting the project’s website development.

Ido BergerfroindIdo Bergerfroind, IDC Herzliya
Ido is a third year Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past two years, writing a software allowing the collection and processing of valid votes.

Douglas WikstromProf. Douglas Wikstrom, KTH Stockholm
Douglas does research in cryptography, and in particular on cryptographic protocols. Much of his work has focused on so called “mix-nets” that are important building blocks of electronic voting schemes. Visit his website.

Niko FarhiNiko Farhi, Tel Aviv University
Niko is a MSc student at Tel Aviv University. Has worked on the project for the past year, extending the Verificatum project to support Elliptic Curves cryptography, as well as writing the Bulletin Board backend.

Assaf GamlielAssaf Gamliel, IDC Herzliya
Assaf is a second year Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past year, providing a reliable voter registry database and software module.

Daniel RapaportDaniel Rapaport, IDC Herzliya
Daniel is a second year Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past year, providing a reliable voter registry database and software module.

Omri BaumerOmri Baumer, IDC Herzliya
Omri is a second year Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past year, supporting the project’s Bulletin Board and reliable/secure vote collection process.

Assaf IngerAssaf Inger
Assaf has graduated from the IDC with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Has worked on the project for a full year contributing to the project’s unique Bulletin Board database and software module.

Ben RivaEitan Grundland, IDC Herzliya
Eitan is a Master’s degree Computer Science student at the IDC. Has worked on the project for the past year surveying the system’s architecture.

Natalie LevyNatalie Levy, Sky Design
Natalie is the graphic designer that gave the Wombat Voting System visual style. She designed the logo, website, touch screen voting interface, posters and animation. Visit her website.

Advisors

Ben AdidaDr. Ben Adida, Mozilla
Ben’s work is in helping individuals control their data through software, including elements of cryptography, privacy, and web security. He is the creator and lead of the Helios Voting System. Visit his website.

Ran CanettiProf. Ran Canetti, Tel Aviv University
Ran Canetti specializes in cryptography and network security, and in particular in the design and analysis of cryptogtraphic protocols. Visit his website.

Morgan LlewellynProf. Morgan Llewellyn, IMT Lucca
Morgan’s expertise is in the fields of data collection and analysis. His research is primarily applied to the domains of voting technology, political behavior, and empirical methodology. More recently, Morgan has been interested in data collection techniques that facilitate individual data ownership. Visit his website.

Avi RubinProf. Avi Rubin, Johns Hopkins University
Avi specializes in computer security and applied cryptography. He worked for many years on the problem of electronic voting, and now spends his time on the problem of securing electronic medical records. He spent the 2010/2011 academic year as a visiting professor at Tel Aviv University. Visit his website.

Peter RyanProf. Peter Ryan, University of Luxembourg
Peter specializes in cryptography, the design and analysis of cryptographic protocols and the formal analysis of secure systems. Recently he has been active in the development of verifiable voting schemes, in particular, Pret A Voter, Pretty Good Democracy and OpenVote. Visit his website.