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Primal-dual methods in online optimization give several of the state-of-the art results in both of the most common models: adversarial and stochastic/random order. Here we try to provide a more unified analysis of primal-dual algorithms to…
In the context of structured nonconvex optimization, we estimate the increase in minimum value for a decision that is robust to parameter perturbations as compared to the value of a nominal problem. The estimates rely on detailed…
We investigate a class of composite nonconvex functions, where the outer function is the sum of univariate extended-real-valued convex functions and the inner function is the limit of difference-of-convex functions. A notable feature of…
Weak submodularity is a natural relaxation of the diminishing return property, which is equivalent to submodularity. Weak submodularity has been used to show that many (monotone) functions that arise in practice can be efficiently maximized…
Submodular functions are a broad class of set functions, which naturally arise in diverse areas. Many algorithms have been suggested for the maximization of these functions. Unfortunately, once the function deviates from submodularity, the…
Optimization algorithms and Monte Carlo sampling algorithms have provided the computational foundations for the rapid growth in applications of statistical machine learning in recent years. There is, however, limited theoretical…
Approximations of optimization problems arise in computational procedures and sensitivity analysis. The resulting effect on solutions can be significant, with even small approximations of components of a problem translating into large…
In this paper, we consider an online optimization process, where the objective functions are not convex (nor concave) but instead belong to a broad class of continuous submodular functions. We first propose a variant of the Frank-Wolfe…
A subgradient method is presented for solving general convex optimization problems, the main requirement being that a strictly-feasible point is known. A feasible sequence of iterates is generated, which converges to within user-specified…
We study the problem of optimizing nonlinear objective functions over bipartite matchings. While the problem is generally intractable, we provide several efficient algorithms for it, including a deterministic algorithm for maximizing convex…
In this paper, we propose a new Fully Composite Formulation of convex optimization problems. It includes, as a particular case, the problems with functional constraints, max-type minimization problems, and problems of Composite…
We discuss non-Euclidean deterministic and stochastic algorithms for optimization problems with strongly and uniformly convex objectives. We provide accuracy bounds for the performance of these algorithms and design methods which are…
With the extensive application of submodularity, its generalizations are constantly being proposed. However, most of them are tailored for special problems. In this paper, we focus on quasi-submodularity, a universal generalization, which…
Submodular maximization subject to matroid constraints is a central problem with many applications in machine learning. As algorithms are increasingly used in decision-making over datapoints with sensitive attributes such as gender or race,…
We study two mixed robust/average-case submodular partitioning problems that we collectively call Submodular Partitioning. These problems generalize both purely robust instances of the problem (namely max-min submodular fair allocation…
The paper introduces several new concepts for solving nonconvex or nonsmooth optimization problems, including convertible nonconvex function, exact convertible nonconvex function and differentiable convertible nonconvex function. It is…
In this paper we study the adaptivity of submodular maximization. Adaptivity quantifies the number of sequential rounds that an algorithm makes when function evaluations can be executed in parallel. Adaptivity is a fundamental concept that…
Composite minimization involves a collection of functions which are aggregated in a nonsmooth manner. It covers, as a particular case, smooth approximation of minimax games, minimization of max-type functions, and simple composite…
Continuous DR-submodular functions are a class of functions that satisfy the Diminishing Returns (DR) property, which implies that they are concave along non-negative directions. Existing works have studied monotone continuous DR-submodular…
Graduated optimization is a global optimization technique that is used to minimize a multimodal nonconvex function by smoothing the objective function with noise and gradually refining the solution. This paper experimentally evaluates the…