Related papers: Using gradient directions to get global convergenc…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) is a popular and efficient method with wide applications in training deep neural nets and other nonconvex models. While the behavior of SGD is well understood in the convex learning setting, the existing…
We consider a decentralized learning setting in which data is distributed over nodes in a graph. The goal is to learn a global model on the distributed data without involving any central entity that needs to be trusted. While gossip-based…
In this paper, a modification to the Gradient Sampling (GS) method for minimizing nonsmooth nonconvex functions is presented. One drawback in GS method is the need of solving a Quadratic optimization Problem (QP) at each iteration, which is…
Since the late 1950's when quasi-Newton methods first appeared, they have become one of the most widely used and efficient algorithmic paradigms for unconstrained optimization. Despite their immense practical success, there is little theory…
In nonsmooth optimization, a negative subgradient is not necessarily a descent direction, making the design of convergent descent methods based on zeroth-order and first-order information a challenging task. The well-studied bundle methods…
Natural-gradient descent (NGD) on structured parameter spaces (e.g., low-rank covariances) is computationally challenging due to difficult Fisher-matrix computations. We address this issue by using \emph{local-parameter coordinates} to…
Stochastic Gradient Descent-Ascent (SGDA) is one of the most prominent algorithms for solving min-max optimization and variational inequalities problems (VIP) appearing in various machine learning tasks. The success of the method led to…
This study examines several renowned gradient-based optimization techniques and focuses on their computational efficiency and precision. In the study, the steepest descent, conjugate gradient (Fletcher-Reeves and Polak-Ribiere variants),…
When training neural networks, it has been widely observed that a large step size is essential in stochastic gradient descent (SGD) for obtaining superior models. However, the effect of large step sizes on the success of SGD is not well…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) with mini-batching is a standard tool in large-scale optimization, yet its theoretical properties under heavy-tailed gradient noise remain largely unexplored. In this paper we study SGD with increasing…
Differentially private (stochastic) gradient descent is the workhorse of DP private machine learning in both the convex and non-convex settings. Without privacy constraints, second-order methods, like Newton's method, converge faster than…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) is a simple and popular method to solve stochastic optimization problems which arise in machine learning. For strongly convex problems, its convergence rate was known to be O(\log(T)/T), by running SGD for…
In this paper, we examine the time it takes for stochastic gradient descent (SGD) to reach the global minimum of a general, non-convex loss function. We approach this question through the lens of randomly perturbed dynamical systems and…
Dual descent methods are commonly used to solve network flow optimization problems, since their implementation can be distributed over the network. These algorithms, however, often exhibit slow convergence rates. Approximate Newton methods…
Descent directions such as movement towards Descent directions, including movement towards Frank-Wolfe vertices, away-steps, in-face away-steps and pairwise directions, have been an important design consideration in conditional gradient…
The numerical solution of differential equations using machine learning-based approaches has gained significant popularity. Neural network-based discretization has emerged as a powerful tool for solving differential equations by…
Optimization problems, arise in many practical applications, from the view points of both theory and numerical methods. Especially, significant improvement in deep learning training came from the Quasi-Newton methods. Quasi-Newton search…
Communication has been seen as a significant bottleneck in industrial applications over large-scale networks. To alleviate the communication burden, sign-based optimization algorithms have gained popularity recently in both industrial and…
For strongly convex objectives that are smooth, the classical theory of gradient descent ensures linear convergence relative to the number of gradient evaluations. An analogous nonsmooth theory is challenging. Even when the objective is…
Random search methods are widely used for global optimization due to their theoretical generality and implementation simplicity. This paper proposes a depth-first directional search (DFDS) algorithm for globally solving nonconvex…