diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4616bf5a5..230146c2b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 <a href="https://github.com/novifinancial/winterfell/blob/main/LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg"></a>
 <img src="https://github.com/novifinancial/winterfell/workflows/CI/badge.svg?branch=main">
 <a href="https://deps.rs/repo/github/novifinancial/winterfell"><img src="https://deps.rs/repo/github/novifinancial/winterfell/status.svg"></a>
-<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/prover-rustc_1.78+-lightgray.svg">
-<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/verifier-rustc_1.78+-lightgray.svg">
+<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/prover-rustc_1.82+-lightgray.svg">
+<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/verifier-rustc_1.82+-lightgray.svg">
 <a href="https://crates.io/crates/winterfell"><img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/v/winterfell"></a>
 
 A STARK prover and verifier for arbitrary computations.
diff --git a/air/src/options.rs b/air/src/options.rs
index a831bdad7..01599489c 100644
--- a/air/src/options.rs
+++ b/air/src/options.rs
@@ -377,7 +377,11 @@ impl PartitionOptions {
 
     /// Returns the size of each partition used when committing to the main and auxiliary traces as
     /// well as the constraint evaluation trace.
+    /// The returned size is given in terms of number of columns in the field `E`.
     pub fn partition_size<E: FieldElement>(&self, num_columns: usize) -> usize {
+        if self.num_partitions == 1 && self.min_partition_size == 1 {
+            return num_columns;
+        }
         let base_elements_per_partition = cmp::max(
             (num_columns * E::EXTENSION_DEGREE).div_ceil(self.num_partitions as usize),
             self.min_partition_size as usize,
diff --git a/prover/Cargo.toml b/prover/Cargo.toml
index 85b5dbcd7..6dd616a1a 100644
--- a/prover/Cargo.toml
+++ b/prover/Cargo.toml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ air = { version = "0.10", path = "../air", package = "winter-air", default-featu
 crypto = { version = "0.10", path = "../crypto", package = "winter-crypto", default-features = false }
 fri = { version = "0.10", path = '../fri', package = "winter-fri", default-features = false }
 math = { version = "0.10", path = "../math", package = "winter-math", default-features = false }
-maybe_async = { path = "../utils/maybe_async" , package = "winter-maybe-async" }
+maybe_async = { version = "0.10", path = "../utils/maybe_async" , package = "winter-maybe-async" }
 tracing = { version = "0.1", default-features = false, features = ["attributes"]}
 utils = { version = "0.10", path = "../utils/core", package = "winter-utils", default-features = false }
 
diff --git a/prover/src/lib.rs b/prover/src/lib.rs
index 035d6c655..1a2e157ea 100644
--- a/prover/src/lib.rs
+++ b/prover/src/lib.rs
@@ -219,6 +219,7 @@ pub trait Prover {
     /// Builds and returns the auxiliary trace.
     #[allow(unused_variables)]
     #[maybe_async]
+    #[instrument(skip_all)]
     fn build_aux_trace<E>(
         &self,
         main_trace: &Self::Trace,
diff --git a/prover/src/matrix/row_matrix.rs b/prover/src/matrix/row_matrix.rs
index 85b43122e..6cb9ef60c 100644
--- a/prover/src/matrix/row_matrix.rs
+++ b/prover/src/matrix/row_matrix.rs
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ impl<E: FieldElement> RowMatrix<E> {
         // allocate vector to store row hashes
         let mut row_hashes = unsafe { uninit_vector::<H::Digest>(self.num_rows()) };
 
-        if partition_size == self.num_cols() * E::EXTENSION_DEGREE {
+        if partition_size == self.num_cols() {
             // iterate though matrix rows, hashing each row
             batch_iter_mut!(
                 &mut row_hashes,
diff --git a/verifier/src/channel.rs b/verifier/src/channel.rs
index 9d7dbc426..e6c511cd8 100644
--- a/verifier/src/channel.rs
+++ b/verifier/src/channel.rs
@@ -442,7 +442,7 @@ where
     E: FieldElement,
     H: ElementHasher<BaseField = E::BaseField>,
 {
-    if partition_size == row.len() * E::EXTENSION_DEGREE {
+    if partition_size == row.len() {
         H::hash_elements(row)
     } else {
         let mut buffer = vec![H::Digest::default(); partition_size];