Related papers: Sample Complexity of Sample Average Approximation …

In computational science workflows, it is often the case that 1) objective functions for optimization involve multiple simulation outputs, and 2) those simulations can be performed (at least partially) in parallel. In this work, we…

This article describes a novel approach to chance-constrained programming based on the sample average approximation (SAA) method. Recent work focuses on heuristic approximations to the SAA problem and we introduce a novel approach which…

While solutions of Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) problems can sometimes have a higher out-of-sample expected reward than the Sample Average Approximation (SAA), there is no guarantee. In this paper, we introduce a class of…

We study the sample complexity of stochastic convex optimization when problem parameters, e.g., the distance to optimality, are unknown. We pursue two strategies. First, we develop a reliable model selection method that avoids overfitting…

During recent years the interest of optimization and machine learning communities in high-probability convergence of stochastic optimization methods has been growing. One of the main reasons for this is that high-probability complexity…

Shape-constrained optimization arises in a wide range of problems including distributionally robust optimization (DRO) that has surging popularity in recent years. In the DRO literature, these problems are usually solved via reduction into…

In this paper, we consider convex stochastic optimization problems arising in machine learning applications (e.g., risk minimization) and mathematical statistics (e.g., maximum likelihood estimation). There are two main approaches to solve…

The approximation ratio has become one of the dominant measures in mechanism design problems. In light of analysis of algorithms, we define the \emph{smoothed approximation ratio} to compare the performance of the optimal mechanism and a…

This work is motivated by the challenges of applying the sample average approximation (SAA) method to multistage stochastic programming with an unknown continuous-state Markov process. While SAA is widely used in static and two-stage…

An algorithm is proposed, analyzed, and tested for solving continuous nonlinear-equality-constrained optimization problems where the objective and constraint functions are defined by expectations or averages over large, finite numbers of…

Many machine learning and optimization algorithms can be cast as instances of stochastic approximation (SA). The convergence rate of these algorithms is known to be slow, with the optimal mean squared error (MSE) of order $O(n^{-1})$. In…

We consider optimal allocation problems with Conditional Value-At-Risk (CVaR) constraint. We prove, under very mild assumptions, the convergence of the Sample Average Approximation method (SAA) applied to this problem, and we also exhibit a…

Stochastic approximation Monte Carlo (SAMC) has recently been proposed by Liang, Liu and Carroll [J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 102 (2007) 305--320] as a general simulation and optimization algorithm. In this paper, we propose to improve its…

We study sample average approximations (SAA) of chance constrained programs. SAA methods typically approximate the actual distribution in the chance constraint using an empirical distribution constructed from random samples assumed to be…

We consider constraint satisfaction problems of bounded degree, with a good notion of "typicality", e.g. the negation of the variables in each constraint is taken independently at random. Using the quantum approximate optimization algorithm…

Stochastic Approximation (SA) is a popular approach for solving fixed-point equations where the information is corrupted by noise. In this paper, we consider an SA involving a contraction mapping with respect to an arbitrary norm, and show…

In this work we introduce a novel approach, based on sampling, for finding assignments that are likely to be solutions to stochastic constraint satisfaction problems and constraint optimisation problems. Our approach reduces the size of the…

The stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA) and the corresponding Monte Carlo (MC) method are among the most common approaches for studying stochastic processes. They rely on knowledge of interevent probability density functions (PDFs) and on…

We investigate statistical properties of the optimal value of the Sample Average Approximation of stochastic programs, continuing the study in Kr\"atschmer (2023). Central Limit Theorem type results are derived for the optimal value. As a…

We study uncertainty quantification for contextual stochastic optimization, focusing on weighted sample average approximation (wSAA), which uses machine-learned relevance weights based on covariates. Although wSAA is widely used for…