Related papers: Gradient Sampling Methods for Nonsmooth Optimizati…
Unconstrained optimization problems become more common in scientific computing and engineering applications with the rapid development of artificial intelligence, and numerical methods for solving them more quickly and efficiently have been…
We study the problem of estimating low-rank matrices from linear measurements (a.k.a., matrix sensing) through nonconvex optimization. We propose an efficient stochastic variance reduced gradient descent algorithm to solve a nonconvex…
In this work, we consider constrained stochastic optimization problems under hidden convexity, i.e., those that admit a convex reformulation via non-linear (but invertible) map $c(\cdot)$. A number of non-convex problems ranging from…
We suggest simple modifications of the conditional gradient method for smooth optimization problems, which maintain the basic convergence properties, but reduce the implementation cost of each iteration essentially. Namely, we propose the…
We study the gradient method under the assumption that an additively inexact gradient is available for, generally speaking, non-convex problems. The non-convexity of the objective function, as well as the use of an inexactness specified…
Stochastic gradient descent samples uniformly the training set to build an unbiased gradient estimate with a limited number of samples. However, at a given step of the training process, some data are more helpful than others to continue…
Recent advances in convex optimization have leveraged computer-assisted proofs to develop optimized first-order methods that improve over classical algorithms. However, each optimized method is specially tailored for a particular problem…
We propose an adaptive smoothing algorithm based on Nesterov's smoothing technique in \cite{Nesterov2005c} for solving "fully" nonsmooth composite convex optimization problems. Our method combines both Nesterov's accelerated proximal…
In this paper, we study a class of composite optimization problems whose objective function is given by the summation of a general smooth and nonsmooth component, together with a relatively simple nonsmooth term. While restart strategies…
We study the convergence of the shuffling gradient method, a popular algorithm employed to minimize the finite-sum function with regularization, in which functions are passed to apply (Proximal) Gradient Descent (GD) one by one whose order…
We develop a novel framework to study smooth and strongly convex optimization algorithms, both deterministic and stochastic. Focusing on quadratic functions we are able to examine optimization algorithms as a recursive application of linear…
In this paper, we explore two fundamental first-order algorithms in convex optimization, namely, gradient descent (GD) and proximal gradient method (ProxGD). Our focus is on making these algorithms entirely adaptive by leveraging local…
We introduce a generic scheme to solve nonconvex optimization problems using gradient-based algorithms originally designed for minimizing convex functions. Even though these methods may originally require convexity to operate, the proposed…
In this paper, we propose a stochastic search algorithm for solving general optimization problems with little structure. The algorithm iteratively finds high quality solutions by randomly sampling candidate solutions from a parameterized…
Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) is one of the simplest and most popular stochastic optimization methods. While it has already been theoretically studied for decades, the classical analysis usually required non-trivial smoothness…
Nonsmooth nonconvex optimization problems broadly emerge in machine learning and business decision making, whereas two core challenges impede the development of efficient solution methods with finite-time convergence guarantee: the lack of…
Non-convex optimization is a critical tool in advancing machine learning, especially for complex models like deep neural networks and support vector machines. Despite challenges such as multiple local minima and saddle points, non-convex…
We study sampling problems associated with potentials that lack smoothness. The potentials can be either convex or non-convex. Departing from the standard smooth setting, the potentials are only assumed to be weakly smooth or non-smooth, or…
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…
Sampling-based optimization (SBO), like cross-entropy method and evolutionary algorithms, has achieved many successes in solving non-convex problems without gradients, yet its convergence is poorly understood. In this paper, we establish a…