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In the first part of this dissertation research, we develop a modular framework that can serve as a recipe for constructing and analyzing iterative algorithms for convex optimization. Specifically, our work casts optimization as iteratively…
We develop a novel framework to study smooth and strongly convex optimization algorithms, both deterministic and stochastic. Focusing on quadratic functions we are able to examine optimization algorithms as a recursive application of linear…
Variance reduction has emerged in recent years as a strong competitor to stochastic gradient descent in non-convex problems, providing the first algorithms to improve upon the converge rate of stochastic gradient descent for finding…
Composite convex optimization models arise in several applications, and are especially prevalent in inverse problems with a sparsity inducing norm and in general convex optimization with simple constraints. The most widely used algorithms…
We study learning properties of accelerated gradient descent methods for linear least-squares in Hilbert spaces. We analyze the implicit regularization properties of Nesterov acceleration and a variant of heavy-ball in terms of…
In this work, we propose a distributed algorithm for stochastic non-convex optimization. We consider a worker-server architecture where a set of $K$ worker nodes (WNs) in collaboration with a server node (SN) jointly aim to minimize a…
There is widespread sentiment that it is not possible to effectively utilize fast gradient methods (e.g. Nesterov's acceleration, conjugate gradient, heavy ball) for the purposes of stochastic optimization due to their instability and error…
We investigate the integration of Nesterov-type acceleration into primal-dual methods for structured convex optimization. While proximal splitting algorithms efficiently handle composite problems of the form $\min_x f(x)+g(x)+h(Kx)$,…
This thesis reviews numerical optimization methods with machine learning problems in mind. Since machine learning models are highly parametrized, we focus on methods suited for high dimensional optimization. We build intuition on quadratic…
Acceleration and momentum are the de facto standard in modern applications of machine learning and optimization, yet the bulk of the work on implicit regularization focuses instead on unaccelerated methods. In this paper, we study the…
Empirically, it has been observed that adding momentum to Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) accelerates the convergence of the algorithm. However, the literature has been rather pessimistic, even in the case of convex functions, about the…
This paper introduces new parameter-free first-order methods for convex optimization problems in which the objective function exhibits H\"{o}lder smoothness. Inspired by the recently proposed distance-over-gradient (DOG) technique, we…
We present a unified convergence analysis for first order convex optimization methods using the concept of strong Lyapunov conditions. Combining this with suitable time scaling factors, we are able to handle both convex and strong convex…
Unsupervised learning aims at the discovery of hidden structure that drives the observations in the real world. It is essential for success in modern machine learning. Latent variable models are versatile in unsupervised learning and have…
Gradient methods are widely used in optimization problems. In practice, while the smoothness parameter can be estimated utilizing techniques such as backtracking, estimating the strong convexity parameter remains a challenge; moreover, even…
Gradient clipping is commonly used in training deep neural networks partly due to its practicability in relieving the exploding gradient problem. Recently, \citet{zhang2019gradient} show that clipped (stochastic) Gradient Descent (GD)…
In this thesis we develop a novel framework to study smooth and strongly convex optimization algorithms, both deterministic and stochastic. Focusing on quadratic functions we are able to examine optimization algorithms as a recursive…
This paper considers the decentralized convex optimization problem, which has a wide range of applications in large-scale machine learning, sensor networks, and control theory. We propose novel algorithms that achieve optimal computation…
In this work we propose a differential geometric motivation for Nesterov's accelerated gradient method (AGM) for strongly-convex problems. By considering the optimization procedure as occurring on a Riemannian manifold with a natural…
Optimization algorithms are increasingly being used in applications with limited time budgets. In many real-time and embedded scenarios, only a few iterations can be performed and traditional convergence metrics cannot be used to evaluate…