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Invex programs are a special kind of non-convex problems which attain global minima at every stationary point. While classical first-order gradient descent methods can solve them, they converge very slowly. In this paper, we propose new…
This paper focuses on convex constrained optimization problems, where the solution is subject to a convex inequality constraint. In particular, we aim at challenging problems for which both projection into the constrained domain and a…
We study the problem of differentially-private (DP) stochastic (convex-concave) saddle-points in the $\ell_1$ setting. We propose $(\varepsilon, \delta)$-DP algorithms based on stochastic mirror descent that attain nearly…
Given a nonconvex function that is an average of $n$ smooth functions, we design stochastic first-order methods to find its approximate stationary points. The convergence of our new methods depends on the smallest (negative) eigenvalue…
In this paper we provide an introduction to the Frank-Wolfe algorithm, a method for smooth convex optimization in the presence of (relatively) complicated constraints. We will present the algorithm, introduce key concepts, and establish…
We consider the problem of control in the setting of reinforcement learning (RL), where model information is not available. Policy gradient algorithms are a popular solution approach for this problem and are usually shown to converge to a…
Optimization with nonnegative orthogonality constraints has wide applications in machine learning and data sciences. It is NP-hard due to some combinatorial properties of the constraints. We first propose an equivalent optimization…
In this work, we study two first-order primal-dual based algorithms, the Gradient Primal-Dual Algorithm (GPDA) and the Gradient Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (GADMM), for solving a class of linearly constrained non-convex…
In this paper, we introduce faster accelerated primal-dual algorithms for minimizing a convex function subject to strongly convex function constraints. Prior to our work, the best complexity bound was $\mathcal{O}(1/{\varepsilon})$,…
Convergence to a saddle point for convex-concave functions has been studied for decades, while recent years has seen a surge of interest in non-convex (zero-sum) smooth games, motivated by their recent wide applications. It remains an…
Some variant of the Frank-Wolfe method for convex optimization problems with adaptive selection of the step parameter corresponding to information about the smoothness of the objective function (the Lipschitz constant of the gradient).…
We propose a general scheme for solving convex and non-convex optimization problems on manifolds. The central idea is that, by adding a multiple of the squared retraction distance to the objective function in question, we "convexify" the…
We study the optimization of non-convex functions that are not necessarily smooth (gradient and/or Hessian are Lipschitz) using first order methods. Smoothness is a restrictive assumption in machine learning in both theory and practice,…
In this paper, we study the problem of finding the Euclidean distance to a convex cone generated by a set of discrete points in $\mathbb{R}^n_+$. In particular, we are interested in problems where the discrete points are the set of feasible…
We study Frank-Wolfe methods for nonconvex stochastic and finite-sum optimization problems. Frank-Wolfe methods (in the convex case) have gained tremendous recent interest in machine learning and optimization communities due to their…
Coordinate descent methods have considerable impact in global optimization because global (or, at least, almost global) minimization is affordable for low-dimensional problems. Coordinate descent methods with high-order regularized models…
In this paper, we address a manifold constrained nonsmooth optimization problem involving the composition of a weakly convex function and a smooth mapping under the availability of a parametrization of the manifold. To find a stationary…
The Frank-Wolfe (FW) method is a popular approach for solving optimization problems with structured constraints that arise in machine learning applications. In recent years, stochastic versions of FW have gained popularity, motivated by…
Learning a deep neural network requires solving a challenging optimization problem: it is a high-dimensional, non-convex and non-smooth minimization problem with a large number of terms. The current practice in neural network optimization…
We consider smooth convex minimization over compact convex sets, i.e., $\min_{x \in C} f(x)$ with the (vanilla) Frank-Wolfe algorithm. Well-known lower bounds establish a worst-case $\Omega(1/t)$ primal-gap barrier in the general smooth…