Related papers: Gradient-Bounded Dynamic Programming for Submodula…
We propose a stochastic approximation method for approximating the efficient frontier of chance-constrained nonlinear programs. Our approach is based on a bi-objective viewpoint of chance-constrained programs that seeks solutions on the…
A very simple example of an algorithmic problem solvable by dynamic programming is to maximize, over sets A in {1,2,...,n}, the objective function |A| - \sum_i \xi_i 1(i \in A,i+1 \in A) for given \xi_i > 0. This problem, with random…
Stochastic Boolean Function Evaluation is the problem of determining the value of a given Boolean function f on an unknown input x, when each bit of x_i of x can only be determined by paying an associated cost c_i. The assumption is that x…
We design a Quasi-Polynomial time deterministic approximation algorithm for computing the integral of a multi-dimensional separable function, supported by some underlying hyper-graph structure, appropriately defined. Equivalently, our…
In this paper we propose a convex programming based method for computing robust regions of attraction for state-constrained perturbed discrete-time polynomial systems. The robust region of attraction of interest is a set of states such that…
Stochastic gradient method (SGM) has been popularly applied to solve optimization problems with objective that is stochastic or an average of many functions. Most existing works on SGMs assume that the underlying problem is unconstrained or…
This work provides the first finite-time convergence guarantees for linearly constrained stochastic bilevel optimization using only first-order methods, requiring solely gradient information without any Hessian computations or second-order…
The problem of finding a solution to the linear system $Ax = b$ with certain minimization properties arises in numerous scientific and engineering areas. In the era of big data, the stochastic optimization algorithms become increasingly…
In this paper, we propose a stochastic method for solving equality constrained optimization problems that utilizes predictive variance reduction. Specifically, we develop a method based on the sequential quadratic programming paradigm that…
Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are a formal framework for modeling and solving sequential decision-making problems. In finite-time horizons such problems are relevant for instance for optimal stopping or specific supply chain problems,…
Inverse problems in scientific computing often require optimization over infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. A commonly used solver in such settings is stochastic gradient descent (SGD), where gradients are approximated using randomly…
We consider the joint design and control of discrete-time stochastic dynamical systems over a finite time horizon. We formulate the problem as a multi-step optimization problem under uncertainty seeking to identify a system design and a…
The recently developed Distributed Block Proximal Method, for solving stochastic big-data convex optimization problems, is studied in this paper under the assumption of constant stepsizes and strongly convex (possibly non-smooth) local…
Stochastic dual dynamic programming is a cutting plane type algorithm for multi-stage stochastic optimization originated about 30 years ago. In spite of its popularity in practice, there does not exist any analysis on the convergence rates…
This paper is concerned with stochastic differential games (SDGs) defined through fully coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs) which are governed by Brownian motion and Poisson random measure. For SDGs, the…
We develop the dynamic programming approach for a family of infinite horizon boundary control problems with linear state equation and convex cost. We prove that the value function of the problem is the unique regular solution of the…
Policy evaluation is a crucial step in many reinforcement-learning procedures, which estimates a value function that predicts states' long-term value under a given policy. In this paper, we focus on policy evaluation with linear function…
Discrete time stochastic optimal control problems and Markov decision processes (MDPs), respectively, serve as fundamental models for problems that involve sequential decision making under uncertainty and as such constitute the theoretical…
Risk-averse multistage stochastic programs appear in multiple areas and are challenging to solve. Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) is a well-known tool to address such problems under time-independence assumptions. We show how to…
Safety of stochastic dynamic systems in environments with dynamic obstacles is studied in this paper through the lens of stochastic barrier functions. We introduce both time-invariant and time-varying barrier certificates for discrete-time,…