1 - "Patterns in sets of points: an overview" "We illustrate the importance of optimization principles in the search for interesting patterns, more in particular for patterns in sets of points embedded in a metric space. This talk will be a journey along the types of patterns in point sets that can efficiently be searched for, and general principles will be outlined. We provide examples from dimensionality reduction, classification, clustering, and others. The emphasis will be on patterns that can be expressed in terms of linear functions of the data."