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Alternating gradient-descent-ascent (AltGDA) is an optimization algorithm that has been widely used for model training in various machine learning applications, which aims to solve a nonconvex minimax optimization problem. However, the…
Recent applications in machine learning have renewed the interest of the community in min-max optimization problems. While gradient-based optimization methods are widely used to solve such problems, there are however many scenarios where…
We study decentralized asynchronous multiagent optimization over networks, modeled as static (possibly directed) graphs. The optimization problem consists of minimizing a (possibly nonconvex) smooth function--the sum of the agents' local…
This paper revisits momentum in the context of min-max optimization. Momentum is a celebrated mechanism for accelerating gradient dynamics in settings like convex minimization, but its direct use in min-max optimization makes gradient…
The graduated optimization approach, also known as the continuation method, is a popular heuristic to solving non-convex problems that has received renewed interest over the last decade. Despite its popularity, very little is known in terms…
Matrix completion is a basic machine learning problem that has wide applications, especially in collaborative filtering and recommender systems. Simple non-convex optimization algorithms are popular and effective in practice. Despite recent…
Motivated by the increasing attention to overall social benefits in networked multi-agent systems, this paper investigates an optimization problem building on noncooperative games under high-level regulation, which can be formulated in a…
Min-max optimization of an objective function $f: \mathbb{R}^d \times \mathbb{R}^d \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is an important model for robustness in an adversarial setting, with applications to many areas including optimization, economics,…
In this thesis, I study the minimax oracle complexity of distributed stochastic optimization. First, I present the "graph oracle model", an extension of the classic oracle complexity framework that can be applied to study distributed…
This paper is concerned with numerically finding a global solution of constrained optimal control problems with many local minima. The focus is on the optimal decentralized control (ODC) problem, whose feasible set is recently shown to have…
We introduce a simple but general online learning framework in which a learner plays against an adversary in a vector-valued game that changes every round. Even though the learner's objective is not convex-concave (and so the minimax…
This thesis investigates the design of algorithms for solving min-max optimization problems, which form the mathematical foundation of many modern applications in machine learning, game theory, and optimization. This work offers new…
There are much recent interests in solving noncovnex min-max optimization problems due to its broad applications in many areas including machine learning, networked resource allocations, and distributed optimization. Perhaps, the most…
For solving combinatorial optimisation problems with metaheuristics, different search operators are applied for sampling new solutions in the neighbourhood of a given solution. It is important to understand the relationship between…
Many problems in high-dimensional statistics and optimization involve minimization over nonconvex constraints-for instance, a rank constraint for a matrix estimation problem-but little is known about the theoretical properties of such…
Recent work demonstrated the benefits of studying continuous-time dynamics governing the GAN training. However, this dynamics is analyzed in the model parameter space, which results in finite-dimensional dynamical systems. We propose a…
We analyze the local convergence of proximal splitting algorithms to solve optimization problems that are convex besides a rank constraint. For this, we show conditions under which the proximal operator of a function involving the rank…
Minimax optimization is gaining increasing attention in modern machine learning applications. Driven by large-scale models and massive volumes of data collected from edge devices, as well as the concern to preserve client privacy,…
In this paper, we study zeroth-order algorithms for minimax optimization problems that are nonconvex in one variable and strongly-concave in the other variable. Such minimax optimization problems have attracted significant attention lately…
Although adaptive optimization algorithms have been successful in many applications, there are still some mysteries in terms of convergence analysis that have not been unraveled. This paper provides a novel non-convex analysis of adaptive…