Related papers: Submodular Functions: from Discrete to Continous D…
This paper addresses the problem of sequential submodular maximization: selecting and ranking items in a sequence to optimize some composite submodular function. In contrast to most of the previous works, which assume access to the utility…
We define the supermodular rank of a function on a lattice. This is the smallest number of terms needed to decompose it into a sum of supermodular functions. The supermodular summands are defined with respect to different partial orders. We…
We investigate two new optimization problems -- minimizing a submodular function subject to a submodular lower bound constraint (submodular cover) and maximizing a submodular function subject to a submodular upper bound constraint…
In this paper, we investigate a class of submodular problems which in general are very hard. These include minimizing a submodular cost function under combinatorial constraints, which include cuts, matchings, paths, etc., optimizing a…
We study a general class of convex submodular optimization problems with indicator variables. Many applications such as the problem of inferring Markov random fields (MRFs) with a sparsity or robustness prior can be naturally modeled in…
We consider a class of sparsity-inducing regularization terms based on submodular functions. While previous work has focused on non-decreasing functions, we explore symmetric submodular functions and their \lova extensions. We show that the…
We extend the work of Narasimhan and Bilmes [30] for minimizing set functions representable as a difference between submodular functions. Similar to [30], our new algorithms are guaranteed to monotonically reduce the objective function at…
We introduce a new convex optimization problem, termed quadratic decomposable submodular function minimization. The problem is closely related to decomposable submodular function minimization and arises in many learning on graphs and…
The optimal allocation of resources for maximizing influence, spread of information or coverage, has gained attention in the past years, in particular in machine learning and data mining. But in applications, the parameters of the problem…
We investigate the continuous non-monotone DR-submodular maximization problem subject to a down-closed convex solvable constraint. Our first contribution is to construct an example to demonstrate that (first-order) stationary points can…
We consider the problem of maximizing a monotone nondecreasing set function under multiple constraints, where the constraints are also characterized by monotone nondecreasing set functions. We propose two greedy algorithms to solve the…
Solving stochastic optimization problems under partial observability, where one needs to adaptively make decisions with uncertain outcomes, is a fundamental but notoriously difficult challenge. In this paper, we introduce the concept of…
The scalability of submodular optimization methods is critical for their usability in practice. In this paper, we study the reducibility of submodular functions, a property that enables us to reduce the solution space of submodular…
Multimodular functions, primarily used in the literature of queueing theory, discrete-event systems, and operations research, constitute a fundamental function class in discrete convex analysis. The objective of this paper is to clarify the…
Submodular maximization generalizes many fundamental problems in discrete optimization, including Max-Cut in directed/undirected graphs, maximum coverage, maximum facility location and marketing over social networks. In this paper we…
Submodular functions, as well as the sub-class of decomposable submodular functions, and their optimization appear in a wide range of applications in machine learning, recommendation systems, and welfare maximization. However, optimization…
Submodular functions are well-studied in combinatorial optimization, game theory and economics. The natural diminishing returns property makes them suitable for many applications. We study an extension of monotone submodular functions,…
Constrained submodular set function maximization problems often appear in multi-agent decision-making problems with a discrete feasible set. A prominent example is the problem of multi-agent mobile sensor placement over a discrete domain.…
We study a general class of convex submodular optimization problems with indicator variables. Many applications such as the problem of inferring Markov random fields (MRFs) with a sparsity or robustness prior can be naturally modeled in…
This paper investigates connections between discrete and continuous approaches for decomposable submodular function minimization. We provide improved running time estimates for the state-of-the-art continuous algorithms for the problem…