Related papers: A Gauss-Newton Method for Markov Decision Processe…
In this paper, we propose objective-function-free (OFF) variants of the proximal Newton method for nonconvex composite optimization problems and the regularized Newton method for unconstrained optimization problems, respectively, using…
We present novel algorithms for simulation optimization using random directions stochastic approximation (RDSA). These include first-order (gradient) as well as second-order (Newton) schemes. We incorporate both continuous-valued as well as…
We present new algorithms for computing and approximating bisimulation metrics in Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Bisimulation metrics are an elegant formalism that capture behavioral equivalence between states and provide strong…
A common goal in evolutionary multi-objective optimization is to find suitable finite-size approximations of the Pareto front of a given multi-objective optimization problem. While many multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have proven to…
We present the first q-Gaussian smoothed functional (SF) estimator of the Hessian and the first Newton-based stochastic optimization algorithm that estimates both the Hessian and the gradient of the objective function using q-Gaussian…
In this thesis, we disentangle the generalized Gauss-Newton and approximate inference for Bayesian deep learning. The generalized Gauss-Newton method is an optimization method that is used in several popular Bayesian deep learning…
Dual descent methods are commonly used to solve network flow optimization problems, since their implementation can be distributed over the network. These algorithms, however, often exhibit slow convergence rates. Approximate Newton methods…
Four decades after their invention, quasi-Newton methods are still state of the art in unconstrained numerical optimization. Although not usually interpreted thus, these are learning algorithms that fit a local quadratic approximation to…
In this paper we consider the problem of computing an $\epsilon$-optimal policy of a discounted Markov Decision Process (DMDP) provided we can only access its transition function through a generative sampling model that given any…
Distributed optimization is widely used in large-scale and privacy-preserving machine learning, where each agent stores a local objective and communicates only with its neighbors in a connected network. We study decentralized second-order…
Quasi-Newton methods are ubiquitous in deterministic local search due to their efficiency and low computational cost. This class of methods uses the history of gradient evaluations to approximate second-order derivatives. However, only…
We introduce a novel method to compute a rank $m$ approximation of the inverse of the Hessian matrix in the distributed regime. By leveraging the differences in gradients and parameters of multiple Workers, we are able to efficiently…
In this paper, we study structured quasi-Newton methods for optimization problems with orthogonality constraints. Note that the Riemannian Hessian of the objective function requires both the Euclidean Hessian and the Euclidean gradient. In…
In this paper we propose a Newton method for shape functions defined on an image set generated by the (Micheletti) metric group. We review basic properties of the metric group and a quotient associated with the metric group and a fixed…
Linear programming relaxations are central to {\sc map} inference in discrete Markov Random Fields. The ability to properly solve the Lagrangian dual is a critical component of such methods. In this paper, we study the benefit of using…
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…
Value iteration is a well-known method of solving Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) that is simple to implement and boasts strong theoretical convergence guarantees. However, the computational cost of value iteration quickly becomes…
It has recently been shown that many of the existing quasi-Newton algorithms can be formulated as learning algorithms, capable of learning local models of the cost functions. Importantly, this understanding allows us to safely start…
Markov decision processes (MDPs) are standard models for probabilistic systems with non-deterministic behaviours. Mean payoff (or long-run average reward) provides a mathematically elegant formalism to express performance related…
We propose a regularized Hessian-free Newton-type method for minimizing smooth convex functions with Lipschitz continuous Hessians. The algorithm constructs an approximate Hessian by finite differences and selects the regularization…