Non-overlapping codes were proposed by V.I. Levenshtein over 50 years ago, for use in synchronisation applications. I will define, motivate and give a brief history of non-overlapping codes, and provide some constructions and bounds on their size. I will talk about some open problems, and variations on the theme.

Bio: Simon Blackburn obtained his BSc at the University of Bristol in 1989, and his doctorate (in pure mathematics) from Oxford University in 1992. He has been based at Royal Holloway since 1992, moving from postdoc to professor. He is interested in the mathematics of cryptography and communications, combinatorics, and algebra.