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We consider the best arm identification problem, where the goal is to identify the arm with the highest mean reward from a set of $K$ arms under a limited sampling budget. This problem models many practical scenarios such as A/B testing. We…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-05-05 Junpei Komiyama , Kyoungseok Jang , Junya Honda

In experimental design, we are given $n$ vectors in $d$ dimensions, and our goal is to select $k\ll n$ of them to perform expensive measurements, e.g., to obtain labels/responses, for a linear regression task. Many statistical criteria have…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-06-11 Michał Dereziński , Feynman Liang , Michael W. Mahoney

We consider a multi-armed bandit setting with finitely many arms, in which each arm yields an $M$-dimensional vector reward upon selection. We assume that the reward of each dimension (a.k.a. {\em objective}) is generated independently of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-24 Zhirui Chen , P. N. Karthik , Yeow Meng Chee , Vincent Y. F. Tan

Motivated by the cost heterogeneity in experimentation across different alternatives, we study the Best Arm Identification with Resource Constraints (BAIwRC) problem. The agent aims to identify the best arm under resource constraints, where…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-25 Zitian Li , Wang Chi Cheung

Bayesian optimal experimental design is a sub-field of statistics focused on developing methods to make efficient use of experimental resources. Any potential design is evaluated in terms of a utility function, such as the (theoretically…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-21 Noble Kennamer , Steven Walton , Alexander Ihler

Bayesian adaptive designs enable flexible clinical trials by adapting features based on accumulating data. Among these, Bayesian Response-Adaptive Randomization (BRAR) skews patient allocation towards more promising treatments based on…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-12-05 Daniel Kaddaj , Stef Baas , Edwin Y. N. Tang , David S. Robertson , Lukas Pin , Sofía S. Villar

Given a finite set of unknown distributions or arms that can be sampled, we consider the problem of identifying the one with the maximum mean using a $\delta$-correct algorithm (an adaptive, sequential algorithm that restricts the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-11-27 Shubhada Agrawal , Sandeep Juneja , Peter Glynn

We aim to efficiently allocate a fixed simulation budget to identify the top-mc designs for each context among a finite number of contexts. The performance of each design under a context is measured by an identifiable statistical…

Methodology · Statistics 2023-07-03 Xinbo Shi , Yijie Peng , Gongbo Zhang

Sampling from distributions to find the one with the largest mean arises in a broad range of applications, and it can be mathematically modeled as a multi-armed bandit problem in which each distribution is associated with an arm. This paper…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2013-06-18 Kevin Jamieson , Matthew Malloy , Robert Nowak , Sebastien Bubeck

The computational costs of inference and planning have confined Bayesian model-based reinforcement learning to one of two dismal fates: powerful Bayes-adaptive planning but only for simplistic models, or powerful, Bayesian non-parametric…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2014-02-11 Arthur Guez , David Silver , Peter Dayan

This note describes the optimal policy rule, according to the local asymptotic minimax regret criterion, for best arm identification when there are only two treatments. It is shown that the optimal sampling rule is the Neyman allocation,…

Econometrics · Economics 2022-08-29 Karun Adusumilli

Approximate Bayesian computation performs approximate inference for models where likelihood computations are expensive or impossible. Instead simulations from the model are performed for various parameter values and accepted if they are…

Computation · Statistics 2015-12-16 Dennis Prangle

We consider the best arm identification (BAI) problem in the $K-$armed bandit framework with a modification - the agent is allowed to play a subset of arms at each time slot instead of one arm. Consequently, the agent observes the sample…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-30 Siddhartha Parupudi , Gourab Ghatak

Many real-world functions are defined over both categorical and category-specific continuous variables and thus cannot be optimized by traditional Bayesian optimization (BO) methods. To optimize such functions, we propose a new method that…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-12-02 Dang Nguyen , Sunil Gupta , Santu Rana , Alistair Shilton , Svetha Venkatesh

We study the fixed-confidence best-arm identification problem in unimodal bandits, in which the means of the arms increase with the index of the arm up to their maximum, then decrease. We derive two lower bounds on the stopping time of any…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-27 Riccardo Poiani , Marc Jourdan , Emilie Kaufmann , Rémy Degenne

Bayesian optimization (BO) is a popular, sample-efficient technique for expensive, black-box optimization. One such problem arising in manufacturing is that of maximizing the reliability, or equivalently minimizing the probability of a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-03 Jack M. Buckingham , Ivo Couckuyt , Juergen Branke

Using quantum systems as sensors or probes has been shown to greatly improve the precision of parameter estimation by exploiting unique quantum features such as entanglement. A major task in quantum sensing is to design the optimal…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-06-24 Jessica Bavaresco , Patryk Lipka-Bartosik , Pavel Sekatski , Mohammad Mehboudi

We study the fixed-budget best-arm identification (BAI) problem in non-stationary linear bandits. Concretely, given a fixed time budget $T\in \mathbb{N}$, finite arm set $\mathcal{X} \subset \mathbb{R}^d$, and a potentially adversarial…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-12 Leo Maynard-Zhang , Zhihan Xiong , Kevin Jamieson , Maryam Fazel

This study investigates an asymptotically minimax optimal algorithm in the two-armed fixed-budget best-arm identification (BAI) problem. Given two treatment arms, the objective is to identify the arm with the highest expected outcome…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-01-23 Masahiro Kato

Many expensive black-box optimisation problems are sensitive to their inputs. In these problems it makes more sense to locate a region of good designs, than a single-possibly fragile-optimal design. Expensive black-box functions can be…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-12-16 Nicholas D. Sanders , Richard M. Everson , Jonathan E. Fieldsend , Alma A. M. Rahat