Related papers: Stein Points
We provide the first finite-particle convergence rate for Stein variational gradient descent (SVGD), a popular algorithm for approximating a probability distribution with a collection of particles. Specifically, whenever the target…
In this paper we propose tight upper and lower bounds for the Wasserstein distance between any two {{univariate continuous distributions}} with probability densities $p_1$ and $p_2$ having nested supports. These explicit bounds are…
Interpreting gradient methods as fixed-point iterations, we provide a detailed analysis of those methods for minimizing convex objective functions. Due to their conceptual and algorithmic simplicity, gradient methods are widely used in…
The application of Stein's method for distributional approximation often involves so called Stein factors (also called 'magic factors') in the bound of the solutions to Stein equations. However, in some cases these factors contain…
Prize-Collecting Steiner Tree (PCST) is a generalization of the Steiner Tree problem, a fundamental problem in computer science. In the classic Steiner Tree problem, we aim to connect a set of vertices known as terminals using the…
Inspired by the seminal work on Stein Variational Inference and Stein Variational Policy Gradient, we derived a method to generate samples from the posterior variational parameter distribution by \textit{explicitly} minimizing the KL…
Optimal transport distances, otherwise known as Wasserstein distances, have recently drawn ample attention in computer vision and machine learning as a powerful discrepancy measure for probability distributions. The recent developments on…
This thesis aims to invent new approaches for making inferences with the k-means algorithm. k-means is an iterative clustering algorithm that randomly assigns k centroids, then assigns data points to the nearest centroid, and updates…
In this article, we present the theoretical basis for an approach to Stein's method for probability distributions on Riemannian manifolds. Using a semigroup representation for the solution to the Stein equation, we use tools from stochastic…
We initiate a systematic study of utilizing predictions to improve over approximation guarantees of classic algorithms, without increasing the running time. We propose a systematic method for a wide class of optimization problems that ask…
This paper studies hypothesis testing and parameter estimation in the context of the divide and conquer algorithm. In a unified likelihood based framework, we propose new test statistics and point estimators obtained by aggregating various…
Thompson sampling (TS) is a class of algorithms for sequential decision-making, which requires maintaining a posterior distribution over a model. However, calculating exact posterior distributions is intractable for all but the simplest…
We show that computing even very coarse approximations of critical points is intractable for simple classes of nonconvex functions. More concretely, we prove that if there exists a polynomial-time algorithm that takes as input a polynomial…
We develop Bayesian predictive stacking for geostatistical models, where the primary inferential objective is to provide inference on the latent spatial random field and conduct spatial predictions at arbitrary locations. We exploit…
In this paper, we investigate a divide and conquer approach to Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR). Given n samples, the division step involves separating the points based on some underlying disjoint partition of the input space (possibly via…
Stein variational gradient descent (SVGD) is a non-parametric inference algorithm that evolves a set of particles to fit a given distribution of interest. We analyze the non-asymptotic properties of SVGD, showing that there exists a set of…
Computer experiments are becoming increasingly important in scientific investigations. In the presence of uncertainty, analysts employ probabilistic sensitivity methods to identify the key-drivers of change in the quantities of interest.…
The Wasserstein distance is a distance between two probability distributions and has recently gained increasing popularity in statistics and machine learning, owing to its attractive properties. One important approach to extending this…
We introduce $\textit{Stein transport}$, a novel methodology for Bayesian inference designed to efficiently push an ensemble of particles along a predefined curve of tempered probability distributions. The driving vector field is chosen…
We propose a new general version of Stein's method for univariate distributions. In particular we propose a canonical definition of the Stein operator of a probability distribution {which is based on a linear difference or differential-type…