Applying Spatial Database Techniques to Other Domains: a Case Study on Top-k and Computational Geometric Operators

In this seminar, we will explore how processing rich spatial data is not the only practical (and research-wise promising) application domain for traditional spatial database techniques. An equally promising direction, possibly with low-hanging fruits for research innovation, may be to apply the spatial data management expertise of our community to non-spatial types of queries, and to extend standard, more theoretical operators to large scale datasets with the objective of practical solutions (as opposed to favorable asymptotic complexity alone). As a case study, we will review spatial database work on top-k-related operators (i.e., non-spatial problems) and how it integrates fundamental computational geometric operators with spatial indexing/pruning to produce efficient solutions to practical problems.