Related papers: On sample average approximation for two-stage stoc…
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…
Two-timescale Stochastic Approximation (SA) algorithms are widely used in Reinforcement Learning (RL). Their iterates have two parts that are updated using distinct stepsizes. In this work, we develop a novel recipe for their finite sample…
We study statistical properties of the optimal value of the Sample Average Approximation. The focus is on the tail function of the absolute error induced by the Sample Average Approximation, deriving upper estimates of its outcomes…
We consider constrained optimization problems with a nonsmooth objective function in the form of mathematical expectation. The Sample Average Approximation (SAA) is used to estimate the objective function and variable sample size strategy…
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…
This paper studies sample average approximation (SAA) in solving convex or strongly convex stochastic programming (SP) problems. In estimating SAA's sample efficiency, the state-of-the-art sample complexity bounds entail metric entropy…
This paper analyzes the convergence for a large class of Riemannian stochastic approximation (SA) schemes, which aim at tackling stochastic optimization problems. In particular, the recursions we study use either the exponential map of the…
Two-stage stochastic optimization is a framework for modeling uncertainty, where we have a probability distribution over possible realizations of the data, called scenarios, and decisions are taken in two stages: we make first-stage…
We derive new and improved non-asymptotic deviation inequalities for the sample average approximation (SAA) of an optimization problem. Our results give strong error probability bounds that are "sub-Gaussian"~even when the randomness of the…
We consider stochastic optimization problems which use observed data to estimate essential characteristics of the random quantities involved. Sample average approximation (SAA) or empirical (plug-in) estimation are very popular ways to use…
We consider a class of sampling-based decomposition methods to solve risk-averse multistage stochastic convex programs. We prove a formula for the computation of the cuts necessary to build the outer linearizations of the recourse…
This paper tackles the challenging problem of finding global optimal solutions for two-stage stochastic programs with continuous decision variables and nonconvex recourse functions. We introduce a two-phase approach. The first phase…
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 present a novel approach for black-box VI that bypasses the difficulties of stochastic gradient ascent, including the task of selecting step-sizes. Our approach involves using a sequence of sample average approximation (SAA) problems.…
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…
We developed a corporative stochastic approximation (CSA) type algorithm for semi-infinite programming (SIP), where the cut generation problem is solved inexactly. First, we provide general error bounds for inexact CSA. Then, we propose two…
Two-time-scale stochastic approximation (SA) is an algorithm with coupled iterations which has found broad applications in reinforcement learning, optimization and game control. In this work, we derive mean squared error bounds for…
In this paper, we study a class of stochastic optimization problems, referred to as the \emph{Conditional Stochastic Optimization} (CSO), in the form of $\min_{x \in \mathcal{X}} \EE_{\xi}f_\xi\Big({\EE_{\eta|\xi}[g_\eta(x,\xi)]}\Big)$,…
The sample average approximation (SAA) and the stochastic approximation (SA) are two popular schemes for solving the stochastic variational inequalities problem (SVIP). In the past decades, theories on the consistency of the SAA solutions…
We explore the performance of sample average approximation in comparison with several other methods for stochastic optimization when there is information available on the underlying true probability distribution. The methods we evaluate are…