Fisikopoulos Vissarion
Software Engineer & Research Scientist
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Vissarion leads development at GeomScale, a NumFOCUS-affiliated
organization focused on scalable geometric computing. His work sits at
the intersection of computational geometry, spatial databases, statistics,
and algorithm engineering. He has contributed to numerous open-source
projects including the Boost C++ Libraries and MySQL.
He currently works as a software engineer on LibreOffice at The Document
Foundation and as a researcher at the National Technical University of
Athens (NTUA), contributing to satellite observation projects.
Vissarion serves as an editor for the Journal of Open Source Software and has mentored over 20 students through Google Summer of Code, MSc, and PhD programs. A regular speaker at technology conferences, he also teaches MSc courses in computational geometry and algorithm engineering at University of Athens.
Sampling at Scale: Practical Tools for High-Dimensional Inference
Efficient sampling is fundamental to modern statistical inference—from Bayesian modeling and posterior estimation to uncertainty quantification and probabilistic AI. Yet sampling from high-dimensional constrained distributions remains a major computational bottleneck.
This talk introduces volesti, an open-source C++ library with R and Python interfaces, designed to make sampling and numerical integration over convex domains both scalable and practical. It implements advanced geometric random walks and multiphase Monte Carlo algorithms that scale to thousands of dimensions.
We’ll explore:
1. Why high-dimensional sampling is critical across scientific and engineering domains
2. How volesti tackles problems that standard samplers can’t handle
3. Use cases in Bayesian statistics, finance, and computational biology
Whether you're an engineer, data scientist, open-source contributor, or just curious about the geometric side of statistical inference, this talk connects algorithms with practical, open-source tooling.
Introduction to MySQL Spatial: Features and Real-World Use Cases
Spatial data is everywhere—from maps and navigation to urban planning and mobility services. MySQL provides robust support for managing and analyzing spatial data through geometry types, spatial indexes, and a comprehensive set of spatial functions.
This talk introduces MySQL’s spatial capabilities and highlights two practical use cases:
1. Transforming Between Spatial Reference Systems: Learn how to convert geometries across coordinate systems using MySQL’s built-in SRS transformation functions. This enables use cases such as the seamless integration and visualization of diverse datasets—e.g., combining GPS traces with city planning data on a unified map despite differing coordinate systems.
2. Analyzing Spatial Trajectories: Discover how to measure similarity between movement paths using trajectory data and spatial distance functions. This can support applications like identifying common travel patterns, detecting anomalies, or optimizing routes based on historical behavior.
Whether you're a developer, analyst, or GIS professional, this session will help you unlock the full potential of spatial data in MySQL.
Fisikopoulos Vissarion
Software Engineer & Research Scientist
Actions
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