Lopez, Oscar A.

It was not until the 20th century that combinatorial design theory was studied as a formal subject. This field has many applications, for example in statistical experimental design, coding theory, authentication codes, and cryptography. Major approaches to the problem of discovering new t-designs rely on (i) the construction of large sets of t designs, (ii) using prescribed automorphism groups, (iii) recursive construction methods. In 2017 and 2018, Tran Van Trung introduced new recursive techniques to construct t – (v, k, λ) designs. These methods are of purely combinatorial nature and require using "ingredient" t-designs or resolutions whose parameters satisfy a system of non-linear equations. Even after restricting the range of parameters in this new method, the task is computationally intractable. In this work, we enhance Tran Van Trung's "Basic Construction" by a robust and efficient hybrid computational apparatus which enables us to construct hundreds of thousands of new t – (v, k, Λ) designs from previously known ingredient designs. Towards the end of the dissertation we also create a new family of 2-resolutions, which will be infinite if there are infinitely many Sophie Germain primes.