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We present efficient algorithms for the problem of contextual bandits with i.i.d. covariates, an arbitrary sequence of rewards, and an arbitrary class of policies. Our algorithm BISTRO requires d calls to the empirical risk minimization…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2016-02-09 Alexander Rakhlin , Karthik Sridharan

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) can improve the robustness and fairness of learning methods. In this paper, we devise stochastic algorithms for a class of DRO problems including group DRO, subpopulation fairness, and empirical…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-03 Tasuku Soma , Khashayar Gatmiry , Sharut Gupta , Stefanie Jegelka

In this paper, we consider the problem of distributed online convex optimization, where a group of agents collaborate to track the global minimizers of a sum of time-varying objective functions in an online manner. Specifically, we propose…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-10-14 Yan Zhang , Robert J. Ravier , Vahid Tarokh , Michael M. Zavlanos

As machine learning models are deployed ever more broadly, it becomes increasingly important that they are not only able to perform well on their training distribution, but also yield accurate predictions when confronted with distribution…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-04-14 Paul Michel , Tatsunori Hashimoto , Graham Neubig

We propose a robust regression approach to off-policy evaluation (OPE) for contextual bandits. We frame OPE as a covariate-shift problem and leverage modern robust regression tools. Ours is a general approach that can be used to augment any…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-11-19 Anqi Liu , Hao Liu , Anima Anandkumar , Yisong Yue

We introduce a distributionally robust approach that enhances the reliability of offline policy evaluation in contextual bandits under general covariate shifts. Our method aims to deliver robust policy evaluation results in the presence of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-08-12 Yihong Guo , Hao Liu , Yisong Yue , Anqi Liu

Distribution shifts and minority subpopulations frequently undermine the reliability of deep neural networks trained using Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM). Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) addresses this by optimizing for the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-11 Aheer Sravon , Devdyuti Mazumder , Md. Ibrahim

Most contextual bandit algorithms minimize regret against the best fixed policy, a questionable benchmark for non-stationary environments that are ubiquitous in applications. In this work, we develop several efficient contextual bandit…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-04-05 Haipeng Luo , Chen-Yu Wei , Alekh Agarwal , John Langford

Gradient-variation online learning has drawn increasing attention due to its deep connections to game theory, optimization, etc. It has been studied extensively in the full-information setting, but is underexplored with bandit feedback. In…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-05 Hang Yu , Yu-Hu Yan , Peng Zhao

Stochastic and (distributionally) robust optimization problems often become computationally challenging as the number of scenarios or data points increases. Scenario reduction is therefore a key technique for improving tractability. We…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-10 Kevin-Martin Aigner , Sebastian Denzler , Frauke Liers , Sebastian Pokutta , Kartikey Sharma

This paper proposes a novel approach to construct data-driven online solutions to optimization problems (P) subject to a class of distributionally uncertain dynamical systems. The introduced framework allows for the simultaneous learning of…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-07-23 Dan Li , Dariush Fooladivanda , Sonia Martinez

In the contextual linear bandit setting, algorithms built on the optimism principle fail to exploit the structure of the problem and have been shown to be asymptotically suboptimal. In this paper, we follow recent approaches of deriving…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-23 Andrea Tirinzoni , Matteo Pirotta , Marcello Restelli , Alessandro Lazaric

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is an effective framework for controlling real-world systems with various uncertainties, typically modeled using distributional uncertainty balls. However, DRO problems often involve infinitely…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-22 Yuma Shida , Yuji Ito

The concepts of risk-aversion, chance-constrained optimization, and robust optimization have developed significantly over the last decade. Statistical learning community has also witnessed a rapid theoretical and applied growth by relying…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-10-25 Hamed Rahimian , Sanjay Mehrotra

We propose kernel distributionally robust optimization (Kernel DRO) using insights from the robust optimization theory and functional analysis. Our method uses reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS) to construct a wide range of convex…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-28 Jia-Jie Zhu , Wittawat Jitkrittum , Moritz Diehl , Bernhard Schölkopf

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) has shown lot of promise in providing robustness in learning as well as sample based optimization problems. We endeavor to provide DRO solutions for a class of sum of fractionals, non-convex…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-01 Avinandan Bose , Arunesh Sinha , Tien Mai

We study Online Convex Optimization (OCO) with adversarial constraints, where an online algorithm must make sequential decisions to minimize both convex loss functions and cumulative constraint violations. We focus on a setting where the…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-03-14 Jordan Lekeufack , Michael I. Jordan

We propose the first contextual bandit algorithm that is parameter-free, efficient, and optimal in terms of dynamic regret. Specifically, our algorithm achieves dynamic regret $\mathcal{O}(\min\{\sqrt{ST},…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-06-19 Yifang Chen , Chung-Wei Lee , Haipeng Luo , Chen-Yu Wei

We study a novel setting in offline reinforcement learning (RL) where a number of distributed machines jointly cooperate to solve the problem but only one single round of communication is allowed and there is a budget constraint on the…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-02-11 Juliusz Krysztof Ziomek , Jun Wang , Yaodong Yang

This paper addresses the poor finite-horizon performance of existing online \emph{restless bandit} (RB) algorithms, which stems from the prohibitive sample complexity of learning a full \emph{Markov decision process} (MDP) for each agent.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-07 Jiamin Xu , Ivan Nazarov , Aditya Rastogi , África Periáñez , Kyra Gan