English

Avoiding Geometry Improvement in Derivative-Free Model-Based Methods via Randomization

Optimization and Control 2023-05-30 v1

Abstract

We present a technique for model-based derivative-free optimization called \emph{basis sketching}. Basis sketching consists of taking random sketches of the Vandermonde matrix employed in constructing an interpolation model. This randomization enables weakening the general requirement in model-based derivative-free methods that interpolation sets contain a full-dimensional set of affinely independent points in every iteration. Practically, this weakening provides a theoretically justified means of avoiding potentially expensive geometry improvement steps in many model-based derivative-free methods. We demonstrate this practicality by extending the nonlinear least squares solver, \texttt{POUNDers} to a variant that employs basis sketching and we observe encouraging results on higher dimensional problems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2305.17336,
  title  = {Avoiding Geometry Improvement in Derivative-Free Model-Based Methods via Randomization},
  author = {Matt Menickelly},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.17336},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T10:48:08.799Z