The proposal focuses on the relation between finite geometry and coding theory. Our attention
goes specifically to maximum rank distance codes or MRD codes. These are a particular type of
rank codes, which describe a systematic way of building codes that could detect and correct
multiple random rank errors.
The aim of this research is to get a deeper understanding of the geometry behind MRD codes, and
more importantly, to further develop the connections between them. For this we consider linear
sets. These are particular sets of points in a finite projective space and are frequently used to
construct or characterise examples of various substructures in finite geometry. The connection
between linear MRD codes and linear sets is fairly new and needs to be developed further. Apart
from classifying known examples, we aim at constructing new examples of MRD codes and their
related linear sets.
As a second goal, we focus on the construction of non-linear MRD codes. There are few general
constructions of non-linear MRD codes known, hence obtaining a new infinite family would be a
big step forward. For this, we consider a different geometric link, namely the link between MRD
codes and exterior sets to a Segre variety. This algebraic variety corresponds to the cartesian
product of two projective spaces and has various connection with field reduction, subgeometries
and linear sets. We will concentrate on constructing non-linear MRD codes by purely geometric
arguments.