How this works
Three options for asking a question:
- Email, shujaatali@ieee.org with subject line
[ASK]. Include whether you want attribution (full name, affiliation only, or anonymous). - LinkedIn, DM /in/s-ali-badami. Mention the topic up front.
- Already in the queue, check /faq/ first. 30 questions answered there.
What I will and will not answer
Will answer:
- Post-quantum cryptography for critical infrastructure
- NIST FIPS 203 / 204 / 205 deployment trade-offs
- IETF LAKE EDHOC and PQ-EDHOC mechanics
- ISA/IEC 62443 zone-and-conduit design with PQC
- Quantum kernel methods on NISQ hardware (ZZFeatureMap, QSVM)
- Reinforcement learning under partial observability (POMDPs)
- LSM-tree storage internals for IoT and edge databases
- 6G cognitive radio under partial observability
- Career questions for early-career researchers in IoT or PQC
Will not answer:
- Specific commercial-vendor product comparisons
- Crypto-asset price predictions or trading strategy
- Generic "AI strategy" questions outside my actual research
- Anything that is really a free consulting request in disguise
Cadence
I aim to answer one to three questions per week, posted here in reverse chronological order. Heavier questions get a full blog post. The archive grows over time and becomes a permanent reference.
Recent answers
The first batch of answers will be added here as questions arrive. Until then, the FAQ covers the 30 most common ones, and the topic page on post-quantum cryptography covers the standing perspective.