An algebraic circuit computes a polynomial using addition and multiplication operators. Understanding the power of algebraic circuits has close connections to understanding general computation.
Group decision-making is a ubiquitous phenomenon with diverse applications ranging from political elections to recommender systems and from organ exchanges to online marketplaces.
Expander graphs are sparse but highly connected graphs, which find a variety of uses in CS. If the vertices of an expander are labelled by 0 or 1, a $t$-step walk gives a $t$-bit string.
A directed graph is said to be k-vertex-connected if after deleting any k-1 vertices, therer is a directed path from every vertex to every other vertex along the directed edges.
Cryptography is a beautiful branch of theoretical computer science that seeks to provide guarantees to the art of secret keeping. The questions it poses are fundamental -- does the universe permit asymmetry of computation?