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This paper develops a frequentist solution to the functional calibration problem, where the value of a calibration parameter in a computer model is allowed to vary with the value of control variables in the physical system. The need of…
The recent rising popularity of ultra-fast delivery services on retail platforms fuels the increasing use of urban warehouses, whose proximity to customers makes fast deliveries viable. The space limit in urban warehouses poses a problem…
We study the tail behavior of regret in stochastic multi-armed bandits for algorithms that are asymptotically optimal in expectation. While minimizing expected regret is the classical objective, recent work shows that even such algorithms…
Distributional shifts pose a significant challenge to achieving robustness in contemporary machine learning. To overcome this challenge, robust satisficing (RS) seeks a robust solution to an unspecified distributional shift while achieving…
In this paper, we make the key delineation on the roles of resolution and statistical uncertainty in hierarchical bandits-based black-box optimization algorithms, guiding a more general analysis and a more efficient algorithm design. We…
In this paper, we study an online learning algorithm with a robust loss function $\mathcal{L}_{\sigma}$ for regression over a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). The loss function $\mathcal{L}_{\sigma}$ involving a scaling parameter…
Radial basis functions (RBFs) are prominent examples for reproducing kernels with associated reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSs). The convergence theory for the kernel-based interpolation in that space is well understood and optimal…
Randomized zeroth-order methods are classically analyzed in expectation, but a black-box Markov conversion can give misleading high-probability guarantees, in particular by forcing the finite-difference smoothing radius to shrink with the…
Black box optimization (BBO) focuses on optimizing unknown functions in high-dimensional spaces. In many applications, sampling the unknown function is expensive, imposing a tight sample budget. Ongoing work is making progress on reducing…
Bayesian optimisation (BO) is a well-known efficient algorithm for finding the global optimum of expensive, black-box functions. The current practical BO algorithms have regret bounds ranging from $\mathcal{O}(\frac{logN}{\sqrt{N}})$ to…
Among various acquisition functions (AFs) in Bayesian optimization (BO), Gaussian process upper confidence bound (GP-UCB) and Thompson sampling (TS) are well-known options with established theoretical properties regarding Bayesian…
Bayesian Optimization (BO) is an effective approach for global optimization of black-box functions when function evaluations are expensive. Most prior works use Gaussian processes to model the black-box function, however, the use of kernels…
We study reinforcement learning with linear function approximation where the transition probability and reward functions are linear with respect to a feature mapping $\boldsymbol{\phi}(s,a)$. Specifically, we consider the episodic…
This paper proposes novel noise-free Bayesian optimization strategies that rely on a random exploration step to enhance the accuracy of Gaussian process surrogate models. The new algorithms retain the ease of implementation of the classical…
The analysis of online least squares estimation is at the heart of many stochastic sequential decision making problems. We employ tools from the self-normalized processes to provide a simple and self-contained proof of a tail bound of a…
Bayesian optimization (BO) is a popular approach for expensive black-box optimization, with applications including parameter tuning, experimental design, robotics. BO usually models the objective function by a Gaussian process (GP), and…
Upper Confidence Bound (UCB) method is arguably the most celebrated one used in online decision making with partial information feedback. Existing techniques for constructing confidence bounds are typically built upon various concentration…
We study the Stochastic Shortest Path (SSP) problem with a linear mixture transition kernel, where an agent repeatedly interacts with a stochastic environment and seeks to reach certain goal state while minimizing the cumulative cost.…
Bandit based methods for tree search have recently gained popularity when applied to huge trees, e.g. in the game of go [6]. Their efficient exploration of the tree enables to re- turn rapidly a good value, and improve preci- sion if more…
We consider stochastic multi-armed bandit problems where the expected reward is a Lipschitz function of the arm, and where the set of arms is either discrete or continuous. For discrete Lipschitz bandits, we derive asymptotic problem…