Related papers: Performance of first-order methods for smooth conv…
We describe an active-set method for the minimization of an objective function $\phi$ that is the sum of a smooth convex function and an $\ell_1$-regularization term. A distinctive feature of the method is the way in which active-set…
Machine learning algorithms typically perform optimization over a class of non-convex functions. In this work, we provide bounds on the fundamental hardness of identifying the global minimizer of a non convex function. Specifically, we…
Black-box policy optimization is a class of reinforcement learning algorithms that explores and updates the policies at the parameter level. This class of algorithms is widely applied in robotics with movement primitives or…
Local optimization presents a promising approach to expensive, high-dimensional black-box optimization by sidestepping the need to globally explore the search space. For objective functions whose gradient cannot be evaluated directly,…
Bayesian optimization is a sample-efficient method for solving expensive, black-box optimization problems. Stochastic programming concerns optimization under uncertainty where, typically, average performance is the quantity of interest. In…
We developed a new method PROTES for black-box optimization, which is based on the probabilistic sampling from a probability density function given in the low-parametric tensor train format. We tested it on complex multidimensional arrays…
The convergence rate of various first-order optimization algorithms is a pivotal concern within the numerical optimization community, as it directly reflects the efficiency of these algorithms across different optimization problems. Our…
Motivated by applications in machine learning and operations research, we study regret minimization with stochastic first-order oracle feedback in online constrained, and possibly non-smooth, non-convex problems. In this setting, the…
Gradient-based (a.k.a. `first order') optimization algorithms are routinely used to solve large scale non-convex problems. Yet, it is generally hard to predict their effectiveness. In order to gain insight into this question, we revisit the…
This paper proposes a set of novel optimization algorithms for solving a class of convex optimization problems with time-varying streaming cost function. We develop an approach to track the optimal solution with a bounded error. Unlike the…
In this paper we first study a smooth optimization approach for solving a class of nonsmooth strictly concave maximization problems whose objective functions admit smooth convex minimization reformulations. In particular, we apply…
In this paper, we define a new type of nonsmooth convex function, called {\em first-order SDSOS-convex semi-algebraic function}, which is an extension of the previously proposed first-order SDSOS-convex polynomials (Chuong et al. in J…
Robust optimization (RO) is a powerful paradigm for decision making under uncertainty. Existing algorithms for solving RO, including the reformulation approach and the cutting-plane method, do not scale well, hindering the application of RO…
Frequently, the burgeoning field of black-box optimization encounters challenges due to a limited understanding of the mechanisms of the objective function. To address such problems, in this work we focus on the deterministic concept of…
In this work, we consider bilevel optimization when the lower-level problem is strongly convex. Recent works show that with a Hessian-vector product (HVP) oracle, one can provably find an $\epsilon$-stationary point within…
In this paper, we propose a new method based on the Sliding Algorithm from Lan(2016, 2019) for the convex composite optimization problem that includes two terms: smooth one and non-smooth one. Our method uses the stochastic noised…
First Order Bayesian Optimization (FOBO) is a sample efficient sequential approach to find the global maxima of an expensive-to-evaluate black-box objective function by suitably querying for the function and its gradient evaluations. Such…
State-of-the-art methods in convex and non-convex optimization employ higher-order derivative information, either implicitly or explicitly. We explore the limitations of higher-order optimization and prove that even for convex optimization,…
Convex optimization problems arising in applications often have favorable objective functions and complicated constraints, thereby precluding first-order methods from being immediately applicable. We describe an approach that exchanges the…
We present a novel framework for PDE-constrained $r$-adaptivity of high-order meshes. The proposed method formulates mesh movement as an optimization problem, with an objective function defined as a convex combination of a mesh quality…