Error-correcting coding enables the design of reliable information transmission and storage systems. It also is universally used for sending packets of information over the internet, writing data on CDs and flash memory devices, and other similar means of modern communication.

Barg's research will devise new ways of constructing and analyzing the error-correcting schemes that are used for transmission. Graphical models have been successfully used for analyzing algorithms that optimize functions on networks such as dynamic programming on trees. The research will analyze graphical models for error correcting codes to come up with faster ways to correct errors that arise in transmission of information. These ideas also could be used to analyze the schemes used for distributed secure information storage, also known as "secret sharing schemes."

Technical details of the research are available on the NSF web site.