Related papers: On the Pervasiveness of Difference-Convexity in Op…
In this paper, we consider a composite difference-of-convex (DC) program, whose objective function is the sum of a smooth convex function with Lipschitz continuous gradient, a proper closed and convex function, and a continuous concave…
The self-concordant-like property of a smooth convex function is a new analytical structure that generalizes the self-concordant notion. While a wide variety of important applications feature the self-concordant-like property, this concept…
This paper proposes a statistically optimal approach for learning a function value using a confidence interval in a wide range of models, including general non-parametric estimation of an expected loss described as a stochastic programming…
Recent advances in the efficiency and robustness of algorithms solving convex quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problems motivate developing techniques for creating convex quadratic relaxations that, although more…
We show that a wide class of risk-constrained nonconvex functional optimization problems exhibit strong duality, regardless of nonconvexity. We develop two novel results under distinct sets of assumptions, establishing strong duality over…
The usual approach to developing and analyzing first-order methods for smooth convex optimization assumes that the gradient of the objective function is uniformly smooth with some Lipschitz constant $L$. However, in many settings the…
In the past couple of decades, the use of ``non-quadratic" convex cost functions has revolutionized signal processing, machine learning, and statistics, allowing one to customize solutions to have desired structures and properties. However,…
We study the continuous-time structure of the difference-of-convex algorithm (DCA) for smooth DC decompositions with a strongly convex component. In dual coordinates, classical DCA is exactly the full-step explicit Euler discretization of a…
In the present paper, we formulate two versions of Frank--Wolfe algorithm or conditional gradient method to solve the DC optimization problem with an adaptive step size. The DC objective function consists of two components; the first is…
The usual approach to developing and analyzing first-order methods for non-smooth (stochastic or deterministic) convex optimization assumes that the objective function is uniformly Lipschitz continuous with parameter $M_f$. However, in many…
Stochastic optimization finds a wide range of applications in operations research and management science. However, existing stochastic optimization techniques usually require the information of random samples (e.g., demands in the…
We address the problem of computing stationary points for non-smooth, non-convex optimization problems. While this topic is well studied in the smooth setting, fewer algorithmic and theoretical results exist for the non-smooth case. Within…
Classical worst-case optimization theory neither explains the success of optimization in machine learning, nor does it help with step size selection. In this paper we demonstrate the viability and advantages of replacing the classical…
In this paper, we consider a class of single-ratio fractional minimization problems, where both the numerator and denominator of the objective are convex functions satisfying positive homogeneity. Many nonsmooth optimization problems on the…
In this paper, we study a family of non-convex and possibly non-smooth inf-projection minimization problems, where the target objective function is equal to minimization of a joint function over another variable. This problem include…
In this paper, we propose an optimization-based method for robust phase retrieval problem where the goal is to estimate an unknown signal from a quadratic measurement corrupted by outliers. To enhance the robustness of existing optimization…
Continuous submodular functions are a category of generally non-convex/non-concave functions with a wide spectrum of applications. The celebrated property of this class of functions - continuous submodularity - enables both exact…
Minimizing the difference of two submodular (DS) functions is a problem that naturally occurs in various machine learning problems. Although it is well known that a DS problem can be equivalently formulated as the minimization of the…
Optimizing static risk-averse objectives in Markov decision processes is difficult because they do not admit standard dynamic programming equations common in Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms. Dynamic programming decompositions that…
In a chance constrained program (CCP), the decision-makers aim to seek the best decision whose probability of violating the uncertainty constraints is within the prespecified risk level. As a CCP is often nonconvex and is difficult to solve…