Related papers: Escaping local minima with derivative-free methods…
This paper introduces a modified Byrd-Omojokun (BO) trust region algorithm to address the challenges posed by noisy function and gradient evaluations. The original BO method was designed to solve equality constrained problems and it forms…
We consider derivative-free black-box global optimization of expensive noisy functions, when most of the randomness in the objective is produced by a few influential scalar random inputs. We present a new Bayesian global optimization…
Local optimization presents a promising approach to expensive, high-dimensional black-box optimization by sidestepping the need to globally explore the search space. For objective functions whose gradient cannot be evaluated directly,…
Non-convex optimization is ubiquitous in modern machine learning. Researchers devise non-convex objective functions and optimize them using off-the-shelf optimizers such as stochastic gradient descent and its variants, which leverage the…
This paper deals with stochastic optimization problems involving Markovian noise with a zero-order oracle. We present and analyze a novel derivative-free method for solving such problems in strongly convex smooth and non-smooth settings…
This paper presents a finite difference quasi-Newton method for the minimization of noisy functions. The method takes advantage of the scalability and power of BFGS updating, and employs an adaptive procedure for choosing the differencing…
An algorithm based on the interior-point methodology for solving continuous nonlinearly constrained optimization problems is proposed, analyzed, and tested. The distinguishing feature of the algorithm is that it presumes that only noisy…
We propose a general optimization-based framework for computing differentially private M-estimators and a new method for constructing differentially private confidence regions. Firstly, we show that robust statistics can be used in…
Accurate models of the dynamics of quantum circuits are essential for optimizing and advancing quantum devices. Since first-principles models of environmental noise and dissipation in real quantum systems are often unavailable, deriving…
Variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) offer a promising path toward using near-term quantum hardware for applications in academic and industrial research. These algorithms aim to find approximate solutions to quantum problems by optimizing…
We propose UPOQA, a derivative-free optimization algorithm for partially separable unconstrained problems, leveraging quadratic interpolation and a structured trust-region framework. By decomposing the objective into element functions,…
We study derivative-free methods for policy optimization over the class of linear policies. We focus on characterizing the convergence rate of these methods when applied to linear-quadratic systems, and study various settings of driving…
Motivated by the poor performance of cross-validation in settings where data are scarce, we propose a novel estimator of the out-of-sample performance of a policy in data-driven optimization.Our approach exploits the optimization problem's…
Bayesian optimization (BO) is a popular global optimization scheme for sample-efficient optimization in domains with expensive function evaluations. The existing BO techniques are capable of finding a single global optimum solution.…
In this paper, we propose and analyze a trust-region model-based algorithm for solving unconstrained stochastic optimization problems. Our framework utilizes random models of an objective function $f(x)$, obtained from stochastic…
Global optimization is a challenging problem, with plenty of algorithms displaying empirical success, but scarce theoretical backing. In this work, we propose a new theoretical framework called Proximal Basin Hopping (PBH), carefully…
We address the problem of multiple local optima commonly arising in optimization problems for multi-agent systems, where objective functions are nonlinear and nonconvex. For the class of coverage control problems, we propose a systematic…
The paper deals with the non-parametric estimation in the regression with the multiplicative noise. Using the local polynomial fitting and the bayesian approach, we construct the minimax on isotropic H\"older class estimator. Next applying…
This paper proposes a stochastic gradient descent method with an adaptive Gaussian noise term for the global minimization of nearly convex functions, which are nonconvex and possess multiple strict local minimizers. The noise term,…
A randomized version of the recently developed barycenter method for derivative--free optimization has desirable properties of a gradient search. We developed a complex version to avoid evaluations at high--gradient points. The method,…