Related papers: Stagnation Detection with Randomized Local Search
We consider a non-stationary formulation of the stochastic multi-armed bandit where the rewards are no longer assumed to be identically distributed. For the best-arm identification task, we introduce a version of Successive Elimination…
Understanding how evolutionary algorithms perform on constrained problems has gained increasing attention in recent years. In this paper, we study how evolutionary algorithms optimize constrained versions of the classical LeadingOnes…
This paper studies the control-oriented identification problem of set-valued moving average systems with uniform persistent excitations and observation noises. A stochastic approximation-based (SA-based) algorithm without projections or…
Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) form a popular optimisation paradigm inspired by natural evolution. In recent years the field of evolutionary computation has developed a rigorous analytical theory to analyse their runtime on many illustrative…
We consider stochastic optimization with delayed gradients where, at each time step $t$, the algorithm makes an update using a stale stochastic gradient from step $t - d_t$ for some arbitrary delay $d_t$. This setting abstracts asynchronous…
Repair operators are often used for constraint handling in constrained combinatorial optimization. We investigate the (1+1)~EA equipped with a tailored jump-and-repair operation that can be used to probabilistically repair infeasible…
We propose two algorithms that can find local minima faster than the state-of-the-art algorithms in both finite-sum and general stochastic nonconvex optimization. At the core of the proposed algorithms is $\text{One-epoch-SNVRG}^+$ using…
In the evolutionary computation community, it is widely believed that stagnation impedes convergence in evolutionary algorithms, and that convergence inherently indicates optimality. However, this perspective is misleading. In this study,…
Consider a discrete-time linear time-invariant descriptor system $Ex(k+1)=Ax(k)$ for $k \in \mathbb Z_{+}$. In this paper, we tackle for the first time the problem of stabilizing such systems by computing a nearby regular index one stable…
Constrained submodular optimization problems play a key role in the area of combinatorial optimization as they capture many NP-hard optimization problems. So far, Pareto optimization approaches using multi-objective formulations have been…
We study the problem of \emph{dynamic regret minimization} in $K$-armed Dueling Bandits under non-stationary or time varying preferences. This is an online learning setup where the agent chooses a pair of items at each round and observes…
Chance-constrained problems involve stochastic components in the constraints which can be violated with a small probability. We investigate the impact of different types of chance constraints on the performance of iterative search…
Whilst there are a plethora of algorithms for detecting changes in mean in univariate time-series, almost all struggle in real applications where there is autocorrelated noise or where the mean fluctuates locally between the abrupt changes…
Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) and its momentum variants form the backbone of deep learning optimization, yet the underlying dynamics of their gradient behavior remain insufficiently understood. In this work, we reinterpret gradient…
The runtime of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) depends critically on their parameter settings, which are often problem-specific. Automated schemes for parameter tuning have been developed to alleviate the high costs of manual parameter…
In the context of unconstraint numerical optimization, this paper investigates the global linear convergence of a simple probabilistic derivative-free optimization algorithm (DFO). The algorithm samples a candidate solution from a standard…
Evolutionary algorithms are bio-inspired algorithms that can easily adapt to changing environments. Recent results in the area of runtime analysis have pointed out that algorithms such as the (1+1)~EA and Global SEMO can efficiently…
Pseudo-Boolean monotone functions are unimodal functions which are trivial to optimize for some hillclimbers, but are challenging for a surprising number of evolutionary algorithms (EAs). A general trend is that EAs are efficient if…
Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have found many successful real-world applications, where the optimization problems are often subject to a wide range of uncertainties. To understand the practical behaviors of EAs theoretically, there are a…
One hope when using non-elitism in evolutionary computation is that the ability to abandon the current-best solution aids leaving local optima. To improve our understanding of this mechanism, we perform a rigorous runtime analysis of a…