Related papers: Adaptive system optimization using random directio…

This paper proposes a new family of algorithms for training neural networks (NNs). These are based on recent developments in the field of non-convex optimization, going under the general name of successive convex approximation (SCA)…

Stochastic optimization (SO) considers the problem of optimizing an objective function in the presence of noise. Most of the solution techniques in SO estimate gradients from the noise corrupted observations of the objective and adjust…

Stochastic gradient descent and other first-order variants, such as Adam and AdaGrad, are commonly used in the field of deep learning due to their computational efficiency and low-storage memory requirements. However, these methods do not…

We introduce AdaSub, a stochastic optimization algorithm that computes a search direction based on second-order information in a low-dimensional subspace that is defined adaptively based on available current and past information. Compared…

We design an algorithm which finds an $\epsilon$-approximate stationary point (with $\|\nabla F(x)\|\le \epsilon$) using $O(\epsilon^{-3})$ stochastic gradient and Hessian-vector products, matching guarantees that were previously available…

In this paper, we consider multi-stage stochastic optimization problems with convex objectives and conic constraints at each stage. We present a new stochastic first-order method, namely the dynamic stochastic approximation (DSA) algorithm,…

A new variant of Newton's method for empirical risk minimization is studied, where at each iteration of the optimization algorithm, the gradient and Hessian of the objective function are replaced by robust estimators taken from existing…

We develop a new algorithm for non-convex stochastic optimization that finds an $\epsilon$-critical point in the optimal $O(\epsilon^{-3})$ stochastic gradient and Hessian-vector product computations. Our algorithm uses Hessian-vector…

In this paper, we propose a distributed Newton method for consensus optimization. Our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods, including ADMM. The key idea is to exploit the sparsity of the dual Hessian and recast the computation of…

This paper proposes a stochastic variant of a classic algorithm---the cubic-regularized Newton method [Nesterov and Polyak 2006]. The proposed algorithm efficiently escapes saddle points and finds approximate local minima for general…

In modern deep learning, highly subsampled stochastic approximation (SA) methods are preferred to sample average approximation (SAA) methods because of large data sets as well as generalization properties. Additionally, due to perceived…

We introduce a new framework for analyzing (Quasi-}Newton type methods applied to non-smooth optimization problems. The source of randomness comes from the evaluation of the (approximation) of the Hessian. We derive, using a variant of…

In this paper, we consider an unconstrained optimization model where the objective is a sum of a large number of possibly nonconvex functions, though overall the objective is assumed to be smooth and convex. Our bid to solving such model…

Logistic regression is a well-known statistical model which is commonly used in the situation where the output is a binary random variable. It has a wide range of applications including machine learning, public health, social sciences,…

We present a novel statistical inference framework for convex empirical risk minimization, using approximate stochastic Newton steps. The proposed algorithm is based on the notion of finite differences and allows the approximation of a…

We show that, for finite-sum minimization problems, incorporating partial second-order information of the objective function can dramatically improve the robustness to mini-batch size of variance-reduced stochastic gradient methods, making…

Acceleration is an increasingly common theme in the stochastic optimization literature. The two most common examples are Nesterov's method, and Polyak's momentum technique. In this paper two new algorithms are introduced for root finding…

We propose a randomized second-order method for optimization known as the Newton Sketch: it is based on performing an approximate Newton step using a randomly projected or sub-sampled Hessian. For self-concordant functions, we prove that…

Many data-fitting applications require the solution of an optimization problem involving a sum of large number of functions of high dimensional parameter. Here, we consider the problem of minimizing a sum of $n$ functions over a convex…

In this paper, we explore the two-point zeroth-order gradient estimator and identify the distribution of random perturbations that minimizes the estimator's asymptotic variance as the perturbation stepsize tends to zero. We formulate it as…