Related papers: Comments on the proof of adaptive submodular funct…
We study the following problem: Given a variable of interest, we would like to find a best linear predictor for it by choosing a subset of $k$ relevant variables obeying a matroid constraint. This problem is a natural generalization of…
Maximizing a single submodular set function subject to a cardinality constraint is a well-studied and central topic in combinatorial optimization. However, finding a set that maximizes multiple functions at the same time is much less…
We consider classes of objective functions of cardinality constrained maximization problems for which the greedy algorithm guarantees a constant approximation. We propose the new class of $\gamma$-$\alpha$-augmentable functions and prove…
Motivated by applications in online advertising, we consider a class of maximization problems where the objective is a function of the sequence of actions as well as the running duration of each action. For these problems, we introduce the…
We establish empirical risk minimization principles for active learning by deriving a family of upper bounds on the generalization error. Aligning with empirical observations, the bounds suggest that superior query algorithms can be…
Chance constraints are frequently used to limit the probability of constraint violations in real-world optimization problems where the constraints involve stochastic components. We study chance-constrained submodular optimization problems,…
We present a simple performance bound for the greedy scheme in string optimization problems that obtains strong results. Our approach vastly generalizes the group of previously established greedy curvature bounds by Conforti and…
Which ads should we display in sponsored search in order to maximize our revenue? How should we dynamically rank information sources to maximize value of information? These applications exhibit strong diminishing returns: Selection of…
Collective communications are ubiquitous in parallel applications. We present two new algorithms for performing a reduction. The operation associated with our reduction needs to be associative and commutative. The two algorithms are…
Is it possible to maximize a monotone submodular function faster than the widely used lazy greedy algorithm (also known as accelerated greedy), both in theory and practice? In this paper, we develop the first linear-time algorithm for…
A flaw in the greedy approximation algorithm proposed by Zhang et al. for minimum connected set cover problem is corrected, and a stronger result on the approximation ratio of the modified greedy algorithm is established. The results are…
Submodular function minimization is well studied, and existing algorithms solve it exactly or up to arbitrary accuracy. However, in many applications, such as structured sparse learning or batch Bayesian optimization, the objective function…
In the stochastic submodular cover problem, the goal is to select a subset of stochastic items of minimum expected cost to cover a submodular function. Solutions in this setting correspond to sequential decision processes that select items…
We consider a class of submodular maximization problems in which decision-makers have limited access to the objective function. We explore scenarios where the decision-maker can observe only pairwise information, i.e., can evaluate the…
We consider the leader selection problem in a network with consensus dynamics where both leader and follower agents are subject to stochastic external disturbances. The performance of the system is quantified by the total steady-state…
We consider the problem of diagnosing faults in a system represented by a Bayesian network, where diagnosis corresponds to recovering the most likely state of unobserved nodes given the outcomes of tests (observed nodes). Finding an optimal…
Often times, in many design problems, there is a need to select a small set of informative or representative elements from a large ground set of entities in an optimal fashion. Submodular optimization that provides for a formal way to solve…
In this paper we describe a new algorithm called Fast Adaptive Sequencing Technique (FAST) for maximizing a monotone submodular function under a cardinality constraint $k$ whose approximation ratio is arbitrarily close to $1-1/e$, is…
We investigate the problem of active learning on a given tree whose nodes are assigned binary labels in an adversarial way. Inspired by recent results by Guillory and Bilmes, we characterize (up to constant factors) the optimal placement of…
A framework previously introduced in [3] for solving a sequence of stochastic optimization problems with bounded changes in the minimizers is extended and applied to machine learning problems such as regression and classification. The…