Related papers: Improving and benchmarking of algorithms for decis…
Nonzero-sum stochastic differential games with impulse controls offer a realistic and far-reaching modelling framework for applications within finance, energy markets, and other areas, but the difficulty in solving such problems has…
Bilevel optimization has found extensive applications in modern machine learning problems such as hyperparameter optimization, neural architecture search, meta-learning, etc. While bilevel problems with a unique inner minimal point (e.g.,…
This paper explores numerical methods for solving a convex differentiable semi-infinite program. We introduce a primal-dual gradient method which performs three updates iteratively: a momentum gradient ascend step to update the constraint…
We study the classic online learning problem of predicting with expert advice, and propose a truly parameter-free and adaptive algorithm that achieves several objectives simultaneously without using any prior information. The main component…
Online reinforcement learning in infinite-horizon Markov decision processes (MDPs) remains less theoretically and algorithmically developed than its episodic counterpart, with many algorithms suffering from high ``burn-in'' costs and…
We investigate the power of randomized algorithms for the maximum cardinality matching (MCM) and the maximum weight matching (MWM) problems in the online preemptive model. In this model, the edges of a graph are revealed one by one and the…
Markov control algorithms that perform smooth, non-greedy updates of the policy have been shown to be very general and versatile, with policy gradient and Expectation Maximisation algorithms being particularly popular. For these algorithms,…
We present a head-to-head evaluation of the Improved Inexact--Newton--Smart (INS) algorithm against a primal--dual interior-point framework for large-scale nonlinear optimization. On extensive synthetic benchmarks, the interior-point method…
We propose a new definition of instance optimality for differentially private estimation algorithms. Our definition requires an optimal algorithm to compete, simultaneously for every dataset $D$, with the best private benchmark algorithm…
We propose a new first-order primal-dual optimization framework for a convex optimization template with broad applications. Our optimization algorithms feature optimal convergence guarantees under a variety of common structure assumptions…
Majorization-minimization algorithms consist of successively minimizing a sequence of upper bounds of the objective function. These upper bounds are tight at the current estimate, and each iteration monotonically drives the objective…
In this article we study and classify optimal martingales in the dual formulation of optimal stopping problems. In this respect we distinguish between weakly optimal and surely optimal martingales. It is shown that the family of weakly…
We develop an algorithmic framework for solving convex optimization problems using no-regret game dynamics. By converting the problem of minimizing a convex function into an auxiliary problem of solving a min-max game in a sequential…
Nonconvex optimization algorithms with random initialization have attracted increasing attention recently. It has been showed that many first-order methods always avoid saddle points with random starting points. In this paper, we answer a…
The interval scheduling problem is one variant of the scheduling problem. In this paper, we propose a novel variant of the interval scheduling problem, whose definition is as follows: given jobs are specified by their {\em release times},…
We study online interval scheduling in the irrevocable setting, where each interval must be immediately accepted or rejected upon arrival. The objective is to maximize the total length of accepted intervals while ensuring that no two…
We study the $K$-armed contextual dueling bandit problem, a sequential decision making setting in which the learner uses contextual information to make two decisions, but only observes \emph{preference-based feedback} suggesting that one…
A commonly used strategy for improving optimization algorithms is to restart the algorithm when it is believed to be trapped in an inferior part of the search space. Building on the recent success of Bet-and-Run approaches for restarted…
We study the problem of efficient exploration in order to learn an accurate model of an environment, modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP). Efficient exploration in this problem requires the agent to identify the regions in which…
We address long-standing open questions raised by Williamson, Goemans, Vazirani and Mihail pertaining to the design of approximation algorithms for problems in network design via the primal-dual method (Combinatorica 15(3):435-454, 1995).…