Related papers: Stochastic Optimization Algorithms
Optimization seeks extremal points in a function. When there are superextensively many optima, optimization algorithms are liable to get stuck. Under these conditions, generic algorithms tend to find marginal optima, which have many nearly…
We propose randomized subspace gradient methods for high-dimensional constrained optimization. While there have been similarly purposed studies on unconstrained optimization problems, there have been few on constrained optimization problems…
In many important design problems, some decisions should be made by finding the global optimum of a multiextremal objective function subject to a set of constrains. Frequently, especially in engineering applications, the functions involved…
Majorization-minimization algorithms consist of iteratively minimizing a majorizing surrogate of an objective function. Because of its simplicity and its wide applicability, this principle has been very popular in statistics and in signal…
This paper addresses the question of whether it can be beneficial for an optimization algorithm to follow directions of negative curvature. Although prior work has established convergence results for algorithms that integrate both descent…
A method for the construction of approximate analytical expressions for the stationary marginal densities of general stochastic search processes is proposed. By the marginal densities, regions of the search space that with high probability…
This contribution examines optimization problems that involve stochastic dominance constraints. These problems have uncountably many constraints. We develop methods to solve the optimization problem by reducing the constraints to a finite…
In applications of imprecise probability, analysts must compute lower (or upper) expectations, defined as the infimum of an expectation over a set of parameter values. Monte Carlo methods consistently approximate expectations at fixed…
Stochastic local search algorithms are frequently used to numerically solve hard combinatorial optimization or decision problems. We give numerical and approximate analytical descriptions of the dynamics of such algorithms applied to random…
Variational quantum algorithms, which have risen to prominence in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum setting, require the implementation of a stochastic optimizer on classical hardware. To date, most research has employed algorithms based…
Motivated by recent increased interest in optimization algorithms for non-convex optimization in application to training deep neural networks and other optimization problems in data analysis, we give an overview of recent theoretical…
In both industrial and service domains, a central benefit of the use of robots is their ability to quickly and reliably execute repetitive tasks. However, even relatively simple peg-in-hole tasks are typically subject to stochastic…
To model combinatorial decision problems involving uncertainty and probability, we introduce stochastic constraint programming. Stochastic constraint programs contain both decision variables (which we can set) and stochastic variables…
We propose an efficient probabilistic method to solve a deterministic problem -- we present a randomized optimization approach that drastically reduces the enormous computational cost of optimizing designs under many load cases for both…
For deterministic optimization, line-search methods augment algorithms by providing stability and improved efficiency. We adapt a classical backtracking Armijo line-search to the stochastic optimization setting. While traditional…
In this invited contribution, we revisit the stochastic shortest path problem, and show how recent results allow one to improve over the classical solutions: we present algorithms to synthesize strategies with multiple guarantees on the…
Most optimization problems in real life applications are often highly nonlinear. Local optimization algorithms do not give the desired performance. So, only global optimization algorithms should be used to obtain optimal solutions. This…
This paper aims to motivate stochastic optimization problems from a statistical perspective and a statistical learning perspective, where the goal is to maximize the log-likelihood or minimize the population risk. We briefly describe the…
Computing shortest paths is one of the most researched topics in algorithm engineering. Currently available algorithms compute shortest paths in mere fractions of a second on continental sized road networks. In the presence of…
There is a recent surge of interest in nonconvex reformulations via low-rank factorization for stochastic convex semidefinite optimization problem in the purpose of efficiency and scalability. Compared with the original convex formulations,…