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Bilevel optimization provides a powerful framework for modelling hierarchical decision-making systems. This work presents a sensitivity-based algorithm that addresses the bilevel structure directly by treating the lower-level optimal…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-28 Eduardo Nolasco , Ross D. King , Vassilios S. Vassiliadis

Bilevel optimization reveals the inner structure of otherwise oblique optimization problems, such as hyperparameter tuning, neural architecture search, and meta-learning. A common goal in bilevel optimization is to minimize a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-29 Lesi Chen , Jing Xu , Jingzhao Zhang

This paper presents a comprehensive review of techniques proposed in the literature for solving bilevel optimization problems encountered in various real-life applications. Bilevel optimization is an appropriate choice for hierarchical…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-11-06 Dhaval Pujara , Ankur Sinha

Stochastic gradient descent is a canonical tool for addressing stochastic optimization problems, and forms the bedrock of modern machine learning and statistics. In this work, we seek to balance the fact that attenuating step-size is…

Signal Processing · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-07-10 Zhan Gao , Alec Koppel , Alejandro Ribeiro

We consider simple bilevel optimization problems where the goal is to compute among the optimal solutions of a composite convex optimization problem, one that minimizes a secondary objective function. Our main contribution is threefold. (i)…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-14 Sepideh Samadi , Daniel Burbano , Farzad Yousefian

We provide a unified analysis of two-timescale gradient descent ascent (TTGDA) for solving structured nonconvex minimax optimization problems in the form of $\min_\textbf{x} \max_{\textbf{y} \in Y} f(\textbf{x}, \textbf{y})$, where the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-28 Tianyi Lin , Chi Jin , Michael. I. Jordan

A large number of application problems involve two levels of optimization, where one optimization task is nested inside the other. These problems are known as bilevel optimization problems and have been studied by both classical…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2017-05-09 Ankur Sinha , Zhichao Lu , Kalyanmoy Deb , Pekka Malo

This work presents the first projection-free algorithm to solve stochastic bi-level optimization problems, where the objective function depends on the solution of another stochastic optimization problem. The proposed $\textbf{S}$tochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-02-08 Zeeshan Akhtar , Amrit Singh Bedi , Srujan Teja Thomdapu , Ketan Rajawat

Bilevel optimization problems are a class of challenging optimization problems, which contain two levels of optimization tasks. In these problems, the optimal solutions to the lower level problem become possible feasible candidates to the…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2013-10-08 Ankur Sinha , Pekka Malo , Kalyanmoy Deb

Bilevel optimization is a key framework in hierarchical decision-making, where one problem is embedded within the constraints of another. In this work, we propose a control-theoretic approach to solving bilevel optimization problems. Our…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-03-25 Sina Sharifi , Nazanin Abolfazli , Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani , Mahyar Fazlyab

Bilevel optimization has found extensive applications in modern machine learning problems such as hyperparameter optimization, neural architecture search, meta-learning, etc. While bilevel problems with a unique inner minimal point (e.g.,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-09 Daouda Sow , Kaiyi Ji , Ziwei Guan , Yingbin Liang

We study the unconstrained and the minimax saddle point variants of the convex multi-stage stochastic programming problem, where consecutive decisions are coupled through the objective functions, rather than through the constraints. We…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-02 Junhui Zhang , Patrick Jaillet

In this paper, we consider non-convex stochastic bilevel optimization (SBO) problems that have many applications in machine learning. Although numerous studies have proposed stochastic algorithms for solving these problems, they are limited…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-15 Zhishuai Guo , Quanqi Hu , Lijun Zhang , Tianbao Yang

We propose a new approach to solving bilevel optimization problems, intermediate between solving full-system optimality conditions with a Newton-type approach, and treating the inner problem as an implicit function. The overall idea is to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-05-08 Ensio Suonperä , Tuomo Valkonen

We propose an actor-critic framework to solve the time-continuous stochastic optimal control problem. A least square temporal difference method is applied to compute the value function for the critic. The policy gradient method is…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-01-27 Mo Zhou , Jianfeng Lu

Bilevel optimization problems involve two nested objectives, where an upper-level objective depends on a solution to a lower-level problem. When the latter is non-convex, multiple critical points may be present, leading to an ambiguous…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-10-18 Michael Arbel , Julien Mairal

Bilevel optimization has arisen as a powerful tool for many machine learning problems such as meta-learning, hyperparameter optimization, and reinforcement learning. In this paper, we investigate the nonconvex-strongly-convex bilevel…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-08-30 Kaiyi Ji , Junjie Yang , Yingbin Liang

Bilevel optimization have gained growing interests, with numerous applications found in meta learning, minimax games, reinforcement learning, and nested composition optimization. This paper studies the problem of distributed bilevel…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-06-23 Shuoguang Yang , Xuezhou Zhang , Mengdi Wang

We study a class of two-stage stochastic programs, namely, those with fixed recourse matrix and fixed costs, and linear second stage. We show that, under mild assumptions, the problem can be solved with just one scenario, which we call an…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-29 Tito Homem-de-Mello , Juan Valencia , Felipe Lagos , Guido Lagos

Multi-task reinforcement learning (RL) aims to find a single policy that effectively solves multiple tasks at the same time. This paper presents a constrained formulation for multi-task RL where the goal is to maximize the average…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-05-07 Sihan Zeng , Thinh T. Doan , Justin Romberg