Related papers: Generalized Policy Elimination: an efficient algor…
A key aspect of Safe Reinforcement Learning (Safe RL) involves estimating the constraint condition for the next policy, which is crucial for guiding the optimization of safe policy updates. However, the existing Advantage-based Estimation…
In this paper, we study the problem of Gaussian process (GP) bandits under relaxed optimization criteria stating that any function value above a certain threshold is "good enough". On the theoretical side, we study various {\em lenient…
We introduce the E$^4$ algorithm for the batched linear bandit problem, incorporating an Explore-Estimate-Eliminate-Exploit framework. With a proper choice of exploration rate, we prove E$^4$ achieves the finite-time minimax optimal regret…
We consider the problem of online regret minimization in linear bandits with access to prior observations (offline data) from the underlying bandit model. There are numerous applications where extensive offline data is often available, such…
This paper investigates regret minimization, statistical inference, and their interplay in high-dimensional online decision-making based on the sparse linear context bandit model. We integrate the $\varepsilon$-greedy bandit algorithm for…
Bandits with knapsacks (BwK) constitute a fundamental model that combines aspects of stochastic integer programming with online learning. Classical algorithms for BwK with a time horizon $T$ achieve a problem-independent regret bound of…
We consider combinatorial semi-bandits over a set of arms ${\cal X} \subset \{0,1\}^d$ where rewards are uncorrelated across items. For this problem, the algorithm ESCB yields the smallest known regret bound $R(T) = {\cal O}\Big( {d (\ln…
Partial monitoring games are repeated games where the learner receives feedback that might be different from adversary's move or even the reward gained by the learner. Recently, a general model of combinatorial partial monitoring (CPM)…
We study the stochastic contextual bandit problem, where the reward is generated from an unknown function with additive noise. No assumption is made about the reward function other than boundedness. We propose a new algorithm, NeuralUCB,…
In the stochastic contextual bandit setting, regret-minimizing algorithms have been extensively researched, but their instance-minimizing best-arm identification counterparts remain seldom studied. In this work, we focus on the stochastic…
We study constrained contextual bandits (CCB) with adversarially chosen contexts, where each action yields a random reward and incurs a random cost. We adopt the standard realizability assumption: conditioned on the observed context,…
This paper presents a novel federated linear contextual bandits model, where individual clients face different $K$-armed stochastic bandits coupled through common global parameters. By leveraging the geometric structure of the linear…
In the kernelized bandit problem, a learner aims to sequentially compute the optimum of a function lying in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space given only noisy evaluations at sequentially chosen points. In particular, the learner aims to…
For infinite action contextual bandits, smoothed regret and reduction to regression results in state-of-the-art online performance with computational cost independent of the action set: unfortunately, the resulting data exhaust does not…
Empirical risk minimization (ERM) is the workhorse of machine learning, whether for classification and regression or for off-policy policy learning, but its model-agnostic guarantees can fail when we use adaptively collected data, such as…
By leveraging the representation power of deep neural networks, neural upper confidence bound (UCB) algorithms have shown success in contextual bandits. To further balance the exploration and exploitation, we propose…
The linear contextual bandit literature is mostly focused on the design of efficient learning algorithms for a given representation. However, a contextual bandit problem may admit multiple linear representations, each one with different…
We propose feature perturbation, a simple yet effective exploration strategy for contextual bandits that injects randomness directly into feature inputs, instead of randomizing unknown parameters or adding noise to rewards. Remarkably, this…
We take a systematic look at the problem of storing whole files in a cache with limited capacity in the context of optimistic learning, where the caching policy has access to a prediction oracle (provided by, e.g., a Neural Network). The…
We introduce contextual queueing bandits, a new context-aware framework for scheduling while simultaneously learning unknown service rates. Individual jobs carry heterogeneous contextual features, based on which the agent chooses a job and…