Related papers: Block-diagonal Hessian-free Optimization for Train…
Stochastic gradients for deep neural networks exhibit strong correlations along the optimization trajectory, and are often aligned with a small set of Hessian eigenvectors associated with outlier eigenvalues. Recent work shows that…
Zeroth-order optimization is an important research topic in machine learning. In recent years, it has become a key tool in black-box adversarial attack to neural network based image classifiers. However, existing zeroth-order optimization…
We present a stochastic descent algorithm for unconstrained optimization that is particularly efficient when the objective function is slow to evaluate and gradients are not easily obtained, as in some PDE-constrained optimization and…
Training deep neural networks (DNNs) efficiently is a challenge due to the associated highly nonconvex optimization. The backpropagation (backprop) algorithm has long been the most widely used algorithm for gradient computation of…
We consider the problem of efficiently computing the maximum likelihood estimator in Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) when the number of observations is much larger than the number of coefficients ($n \gg p \gg 1$). In this regime,…
We present PYHESSIAN, a new scalable framework that enables fast computation of Hessian (i.e., second-order derivative) information for deep neural networks. PYHESSIAN enables fast computations of the top Hessian eigenvalues, the Hessian…
In second-order optimization, a potential bottleneck can be computing the Hessian matrix of the optimized function at every iteration. Randomized sketching has emerged as a powerful technique for constructing estimates of the Hessian which…
Meta-learning problem is usually formulated as a bi-level optimization in which the task-specific and the meta-parameters are updated in the inner and outer loops of optimization, respectively. However, performing the optimization in the…
We consider a class of distributed optimization problem where the objective function consists of a sum of strongly convex and smooth functions and a (possibly nonsmooth) convex regularizer. A multi-agent network is assumed, where each agent…
We consider minimizing a function consisting of a quadratic term and a proximable term which is possibly nonconvex and nonsmooth. This problem is also known as scaled proximal operator. Despite its simple form, existing methods suffer from…
Motivated by recent advances in serverless cloud computing, in particular the "function as a service" (FaaS) model, we consider the problem of minimizing a convex function in a massively parallel fashion, where communication between workers…
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…
Training a neural network (NN) typically relies on some type of curve-following method, such as gradient descent (GD) (and stochastic gradient descent (SGD)), ADADELTA, ADAM or limited memory algorithms. Convergence for these algorithms…
The graduated optimization approach, also known as the continuation method, is a popular heuristic to solving non-convex problems that has received renewed interest over the last decade. Despite its popularity, very little is known in terms…
We propose a new per-layer adaptive step-size procedure for stochastic first-order optimization methods for minimizing empirical loss functions in deep learning, eliminating the need for the user to tune the learning rate (LR). The proposed…
This paper provides a new avenue for exploiting deep neural networks to improve physics-based simulation. Specifically, we integrate the classic Lagrangian mechanics with a deep autoencoder to accelerate elastic simulation of deformable…
In this paper we analyze a zeroth-order proximal stochastic gradient method suitable for the minimization of weakly convex stochastic optimization problems. We consider nonsmooth and nonlinear stochastic composite problems, for which…
We propose a novel limited-memory stochastic block BFGS update for incorporating enriched curvature information in stochastic approximation methods. In our method, the estimate of the inverse Hessian matrix that is maintained by it, is…
We propose a communication efficient quasi-Newton method for large-scale multi-agent convex composite optimization. We assume the setting of a network of agents that cooperatively solve a global minimization problem with strongly convex…
With the growing importance of large network models and enormous training datasets, GPUs have become increasingly necessary to train neural networks. This is largely because conventional optimization algorithms rely on stochastic gradient…