Andreas Varotsis

I’m Andreas, a data scientist and public safety researcher working to improve the use of data and evidence in government. I enjoy coordinating exciting communities, and working with fantastic institutions to build projects that improve the world. You can read more about me on my about page here.

If you’d like to discuss professional work or collaborating on a project, please say hello!

📮 Blog Feed

I use this blog to journal on what I’ve been learning about and building recently. If you’d like to see more of my formal work, you can see a selection of my papers and writing here.

Quarto comments, by the open social web

All the comments, all the time, on all the networks? Sure, we can do that.

My 2025 resolution: share more crappy fiddles (and unfinished research)

…and why you should too

personal

open-source

I’m a big believer of “working in the open” - open-source, open science, open communication, that sort of thing. It’s not just that I think this stuff is ethnical or right (t…

Paper in Progress: Variance in AI Perceptions of Risk

ai

policing

data-science

work-in-progress

This is a research paper in progress: it’s unfinished, messy, and maybe nonsensical, but feedback is always very welcome.

Weeknote - 2024-W35

week-notes

Reflections on post-holiday productivity slumps and UK’s AI education gaps. Exploring tools for converting scientific papers to HTML and AI-powered front-end development. Thoughts on social media disinformation, crime perception, and the allure of new note-taking apps. Plus, intriguing reads on slow productivity and necromancers in space.

Weeknote - 2024-W34 (2024-08-19)

week-notes

On productivity during holidays, sharing thoughts on Copbot Online, FastHTML, and a new Obsidian plugin. Plus, interesting reads on Llama 3 models and the challenges of “deliverism” in government.

Copbot Online: bias and variance in AI perceptions of risk

policing

ai

web-development

I built a website to look at whether language models could help articulate (or maybe even predict) police risk assessments for missing people. The conclusion? Eeeeh. Maybe. Ish?

Quarto Comments, Powered by the Fediverse

I built a Quarto extension!

personal

technology

open-source

I built an extension, and now my blog has fancy comments (and yours can too!)

Why I’m Contributing to OpenStreetMap for Christmas…

…and maybe you should too!

personal

technology

open-source

geospatial

In the eternal words of The Thick of it, everything that happens in the world has to happen somewhere. It sounds obvious, but so many good pieces of research or analysis…

Teaching OpenAI to assess risk, with CopBot!

policing

ai

data-science

Looking for the new Copbot Online? Read about it here!

What’s Happened to Burglary, and does Attending Help?

policing

crime

data-science

It’s nearly 2023, and in the true spirit of Christmas, I’ve used the cheese/wine filled nowhere time between the holidays to pick up an analytical side-project that’s been…

I’ve migrated to Quarto!

news

I’ve migrated to a fancy new technical writing platform, and I’m a little in love with it

Hackers aren’t excited about AI (and other bits from CCCamp23)

personal

technology

ai

data-science

So I’m sitting in Berlin airport, waiting to get home from Chaos Communication Camp 2023. It was, to put it bluntly, bloody fabulous… and my god, I’ve missed hanging out…

Learning GIS in Python - Robbery and Police Searches in Space

crime

geospatial

Using Python GIS libraries to explore the spatial distribution of robberies in London

Learning R - Exploring the COVID Crime Effect in London

data-science

forecasting

crime

geospatial

I use public London crime data on robbery and burglary to examine where this COVID crime shift was strongest, and whether any specific drivers or correlates can be identified.

LAPD Call Prediction for Fun (and Prophet)

data-science

forecasting

crime

Predicting LAPD police call demand using the Prophet time series forecasting library

Twitter Sentiment Analysis with FastAI

data-science

nlp

Using open source twitter data to explore sentiment in public debate