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We consider task and motion planning in complex dynamic environments for problems expressed in terms of a set of Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) constraints, and a reward function. We propose a methodology based on reinforcement learning that…

Dynamic resource allocation (DRA) problems are an important class of dynamic stochastic optimization problems that arise in a variety of important real-world applications. DRA problems are notoriously difficult to solve to optimality since…

In e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and TaoBao, ranking items in a search session is a typical multi-step decision-making problem. Learning to rank (LTR) methods have been widely applied to ranking problems. However, such methods often…

Combinatorial optimisation problems framed as mixed integer linear programmes (MILPs) are ubiquitous across a range of real-world applications. The canonical branch-and-bound algorithm seeks to exactly solve MILPs by constructing a search…

Existing Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) have shown the potential of reinforcement learning (RL) to enhance the complex reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models~(LLMs). While they achieve remarkable performance on challenging tasks…

Sequential decision making, commonly formalized as Markov Decision Process (MDP) optimization, is a important challenge in artificial intelligence. Two key approaches to this problem are reinforcement learning (RL) and planning. This paper…

Popular Monte-Carlo tree search (MCTS) algorithms for online planning, such as epsilon-greedy tree search and UCT, aim at rapidly identifying a reasonably good action, but provide rather poor worst-case guarantees on performance improvement…

In this paper, we present an online reinforcement learning algorithm, called Renewal Monte Carlo (RMC), for infinite horizon Markov decision processes with a designated start state. RMC is a Monte Carlo algorithm and retains the advantages…

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) has profoundly influenced reinforcement learning (RL) by integrating planning and learning in tasks requiring long-horizon reasoning, exemplified by the AlphaZero family of algorithms. Central to MCTS is the…

Tree Search (TS) is crucial to some of the most influential successes in reinforcement learning. Here, we tackle two major challenges with TS that limit its usability: \textit{distribution shift} and \textit{scalability}. We first discover…

Balancing exploration and exploitation remains a key challenge in reinforcement learning (RL). State-of-the-art RL algorithms suffer from high sample complexity, particularly in the sparse reward case, where they can do no better than to…

Iterative methods for computing matrix functions have been extensively studied and their convergence speed can be significantly improved with the right tuning of parameters and by mixing different iteration types. Handtuning the design…

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have significantly impacted the domain of multi-hop question answering (MHQA), where systems are required to aggregate information and infer answers from disparate pieces of text. However, the…

Robust deployment of large multimodal models (LMMs) in real-world scenarios requires access to external knowledge sources, given the complexity and dynamic nature of real-world information. Existing approaches such as retrieval-augmented…

Research in reinforcement learning has produced algorithms for optimal decision making under uncertainty that fall within two main types. The first employs a Bayesian framework, where optimality improves with increased computational time.…

Traditional reinforcement learning and planning typically requires vast amounts of data and training to develop effective policies. In contrast, large language models (LLMs) exhibit strong generalization and zero-shot capabilities, but…

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a best-first sampling method employed in the search for optimal decisions. The effectiveness of MCTS relies on the construction of its statistical tree, with the selection policy playing a crucial role. A…

A recent theoretical analysis of a Monte-Carlo tree search (MCTS) method properly modified from the ``upper confidence bound applied to trees" (UCT) algorithm established a surprising result, due to a great deal of empirical successes…

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has emerged as a powerful paradigm in Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabling agents to learn optimal behaviors through interactions with their environments. Drawing from the foundations of trial and error, RL…

Recommender System (RS) is an important online application that affects billions of users every day. The mainstream RS ranking framework is composed of two parts: a Multi-Task Learning model (MTL) that predicts various user feedback, i.e.,…