Capstone

Capstone may refer to:

See also

Capstone course

A capstone course serves as the culminating and usually integrative experience of an educational program. A capstone course, unit, module or subject in the higher education context may also be referred to as a capstone experience, senior seminar (in the U.S.), or final year project or dissertation (more common in the U.K.).

The term derives from the final decorative ‘cap-stone’ used to complete a building or monument. The term has been in common use in American higher education since the mid-twentieth century, although there is evidence that it was in use as early as the late 1800s. It has gradually been gaining currency in other countries, particularly where attention has focused on student outcomes and employability in undergraduate studies. National grant projects in Australia and the U.K. have further raised the profile of the capstone experience. For example:

Capstone (cryptography)

Capstone is the name of a United States government long-term project to develop cryptography standards for public and government use. Capstone was driven by the NIST and the NSA; the project began in 1993. The initiative involved four standard algorithms: a data encryption algorithm called Skipjack, along with the Clipper chip that included the Skipjack algorithm, a digital signature algorithm, DSA, a hash function, SHA-1, and a key exchange protocol. Capstone's first implementation was in the Fortezza PCMCIA card.

The initiative encountered massive resistance from the cryptographic community, and eventually the US government abandoned the effort. The main reasons for this resistance were concerns about Skipjack's design, which was classified, and the use of key escrow in the Clipper chip.

See also

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