Related papers: Variational Optimization for the Submodular Maximu…
In this paper, we consider the optimization problem Submodular Cover (SCP), which is to find a minimum cardinality subset of a finite universe $U$ such that the value of a submodular function $f$ is above an input threshold $\tau$. In…
Resilient submodular maximization refers to the combinatorial problems studied by Nemhauser and Fisher and asks how to maximize an objective given a number of adversarial removals. For example, one application of this problem is multi-robot…
In this paper, we study the adaptive submodular cover problem under the worst-case setting. This problem generalizes many previously studied problems, namely, the pool-based active learning and the stochastic submodular set cover. The input…
In many submodular optimization applications, datasets are naturally partitioned into disjoint subsets. These scenarios give rise to submodular optimization problems with partition-based constraints, where the desired solution set should be…
We investigate two new optimization problems -- minimizing a submodular function subject to a submodular lower bound constraint (submodular cover) and maximizing a submodular function subject to a submodular upper bound constraint…
The submodular knapsack problem (SKP), which seeks to maximize a submodular set function by selecting a subset of elements within a given budget, is an important discrete optimization problem. The majority of existing approaches to solving…
We consider robust submodular maximization problems (RSMs), where given a set of $m$ monotone submodular objective functions, the robustness is with respect to the worst-case (scaled) objective function. The model we consider generalizes…
Symmetric submodular functions are an important family of submodular functions capturing many interesting cases including cut functions of graphs and hypergraphs. Maximization of such functions subject to various constraints receives little…
The goal of a sequential decision making problem is to design an interactive policy that adaptively selects a group of items, each selection is based on the feedback from the past, in order to maximize the expected utility of selected…
Stochastic optimization of continuous objectives is at the heart of modern machine learning. However, many important problems are of discrete nature and often involve submodular objectives. We seek to unleash the power of stochastic…
This paper studies randomized approximation algorithm for a variant of the set cover problem called minimum submodular cost partial multi-cover (SCPMC), in which each element $e$ has a covering requirement $r_e$ and a profit $p_e$, and the…
We study a family of combinatorial optimization problems defined by a parameter $p\in[0,1]$, which involves spectral functions applied to positive semidefinite matrices, and has some application in the theory of optimal experimental design.…
Inspired by the boolean discrepancy problem, we study the following optimization problem which we term \textsc{Spherical Discrepancy}: given $m$ unit vectors $v_1, \dots, v_m$, find another unit vector $x$ that minimizes $\max_i \langle x,…
Adaptive submodularity is a fundamental concept in stochastic optimization, with numerous applications such as sensor placement, hypothesis identification and viral marketing. We consider the problem of minimum cost cover of…
Marginal MAP problems are notoriously difficult tasks for graphical models. We derive a general variational framework for solving marginal MAP problems, in which we apply analogues of the Bethe, tree-reweighted, and mean field…
In this paper, we consider the unconstrained submodular maximization problem. We propose the first algorithm for this problem that achieves a tight $(1/2-\varepsilon)$-approximation guarantee using $\tilde{O}(\varepsilon^{-1})$ adaptive…
We consider two classic problems: maximum coverage and monotone submodular maximization subject to a cardinality constraint. [Nemhauser--Wolsey--Fisher '78] proved that the greedy algorithm provides an approximation of $1-1/e$ for both…
Submodular function minimization is well studied, and existing algorithms solve it exactly or up to arbitrary accuracy. However, in many applications, such as structured sparse learning or batch Bayesian optimization, the objective function…
The parameterized complexity of problems is often studied with respect to the size of their optimal solutions. However, for a maximization problem, the size of the optimal solution can be very large, rendering algorithms parameterized by it…
A semidefinite program (SDP) is a particular kind of convex optimization problem with applications in operations research, combinatorial optimization, quantum information science, and beyond. In this work, we propose variational quantum…