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We present a novel, practical, and provable approach for solving diagonally constrained semi-definite programming (SDP) problems at scale using accelerated non-convex programming. Our algorithm non-trivially combines acceleration motions…
Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP) is an efficient computational tool for solving nonlinear optimal control problems. It was originally designed as a single shooting method and thus is sensitive to the initial guess supplied. This work…
Discrete optimization belongs to the set of $\mathcal{NP}$-hard problems, spanning fields such as mixed-integer programming and combinatorial optimization. A current standard approach to solving convex discrete optimization problems is the…
This paper provides an overview, analysis, and comparison of second-order dynamic optimization algorithms, i.e., constrained Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP) and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP). Although a variety of these…
We propose a new approach to solve optimal stopping problems via simulation. Working within the backward dynamic programming/Snell envelope framework, we augment the methodology of Longstaff-Schwartz that focuses on approximating the…
We here adapt an extended version of the adaptive cubic regularisation method with dynamic inexact Hessian information for nonconvex optimisation in [3] to the stochastic optimisation setting. While exact function evaluations are still…
This paper proposes a neural stochastic optimization method for efficiently solving the two-stage stochastic unit commitment (2S-SUC) problem under high-dimensional uncertainty scenarios. The proposed method approximates the second-stage…
A broad class of convex optimization problems can be formulated as a semidefinite program (SDP), minimization of a convex function over the positive-semidefinite cone subject to some affine constraints. The majority of classical SDP solvers…
We analyze stochastic algorithms for optimizing nonconvex, nonsmooth finite-sum problems, where the nonconvex part is smooth and the nonsmooth part is convex. Surprisingly, unlike the smooth case, our knowledge of this fundamental problem…
Stochastic programming provides a natural framework for modeling sequential optimization problems under uncertainty; however, the efficient solution of large-scale multistage stochastic programs remains a challenge, especially in the…
This paper presents a novel stochastic gradient descent algorithm for constrained optimization. The proposed algorithm randomly samples constraints and components of the finite sum objective function and relies on a relaxed logarithmic…
This paper proposes a new steepest gradient descent method for solving nonconvex finite minimax problems using non-monotone adaptive step sizes and providing proof of convergence results in cases of the nonconvex, quasiconvex, and…
We study two-stage stochastic optimization problems with random recourse, where the adaptive decisions are multiplied with the uncertain parameters in both the objective function and the constraints. To mitigate the computational…
We consider the stochastic shortest path planning problem in MDPs, i.e., the problem of designing policies that ensure reaching a goal state from a given initial state with minimum accrued cost. In order to account for rare but important…
Block coordinate descent methods and stochastic subgradient methods have been extensively studied in optimization and machine learning. By combining randomized block sampling with stochastic subgradient methods based on dual averaging, we…
An optimization algorithm for a group of nonsmooth nonconvex problems inspired by two-stage stochastic programming problems is proposed. The main challenges for these problems include (1) the problems lack the popular lower-type properties…
In this work, we consider constrained stochastic optimization problems under hidden convexity, i.e., those that admit a convex reformulation via non-linear (but invertible) map $c(\cdot)$. A number of non-convex problems ranging from…
A number of problems in relational Artificial Intelligence can be viewed as Stochastic Constraint Optimization Problems (SCOPs). These are constraint optimization problems that involve objectives or constraints with a stochastic component.…
We present FilterDDP, a differential dynamic programming algorithm for solving discrete-time, optimal control problems (OCPs) with nonlinear equality constraints. Unlike prior methods based on merit functions or the augmented Lagrangian…
With an increasing need for more flexible mobility services, we consider an operational problem arising in the planning of Demand Adaptive Systems (DAS). Motivated by the decision of whether to accept or reject passenger requests in real…