Related papers: An Even More Optimal Stochastic Optimization Algor…
This paper proposes a novel technique called "successive stochastic smoothing" that optimizes nonsmooth and discontinuous functions while considering various constraints. Our methodology enables local and global optimization, making it a…
In this paper we consider large-scale smooth optimization problems with multiple linear coupled constraints. Due to the non-separability of the constraints, arbitrary random sketching would not be guaranteed to work. Thus, we first…
We propose a new stochastic gradient method for optimizing the sum of a finite set of smooth functions, where the sum is strongly convex. While standard stochastic gradient methods converge at sublinear rates for this problem, the proposed…
This work studies the computational aspects of multivariate convex regression in dimensions $d \ge 5$. Our results include the \emph{first} estimators that are minimax optimal (up to logarithmic factors) with polynomial runtime in the…
The choice of the stepsize in first-order convex optimization is typically based on the smoothness constant and plays a crucial role in the performance of algorithms. Recently, there has been a resurgent interest in introducing adaptive…
Spectral risk objectives - also called $L$-risks - allow for learning systems to interpolate between optimizing average-case performance (as in empirical risk minimization) and worst-case performance on a task. We develop stochastic…
Stochastic optimization finds a wide range of applications in operations research and management science. However, existing stochastic optimization techniques usually require the information of random samples (e.g., demands in the…
Majorization-minimization algorithms consist of successively minimizing a sequence of upper bounds of the objective function. These upper bounds are tight at the current estimate, and each iteration monotonically drives the objective…
This paper presents a proximal-point-based catalyst scheme for simple first-order methods applied to convex minimization and convex-concave minimax problems. In particular, for smooth and (strongly)-convex minimization problems, the…
We study differentially private (DP) algorithms for stochastic convex optimization: the problem of minimizing the population loss given i.i.d. samples from a distribution over convex loss functions. A recent work of Bassily et al. (2019)…
Stochastic gradient methods are scalable for solving large-scale optimization problems that involve empirical expectations of loss functions. Existing results mainly apply to optimization problems where the objectives are one- or two-level…
Stochastic convex optimization, where the objective is the expectation of a random convex function, is an important and widely used method with numerous applications in machine learning, statistics, operations research and other areas. We…
In structured prediction problems where we have indirect supervision of the output, maximum marginal likelihood faces two computational obstacles: non-convexity of the objective and intractability of even a single gradient computation. In…
For a linear equality constrained convex optimization problem involving two objective functions with a ``nonsmooth" + ``nonsmooth" composite structure, we study two algorithms derived from a mixed-order dynamical system which incorporates…
Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the topic of min-max optimization, owing to its relevance in the context of generative adversarial networks (GANs), robust control and optimization, and reinforcement learning. Motivated by…
We develop and analyze a variant of the SARAH algorithm, which does not require computation of the exact gradient. Thus this new method can be applied to general expectation minimization problems rather than only finite sum problems. While…
This paper studies the problem of stochastic bilevel optimization where the upper-level function is nonconvex with potentially unbounded smoothness and the lower-level function is strongly convex. This problem is motivated by meta-learning…
In this paper we analyze several new methods for solving nonconvex optimization problems with the objective function formed as a sum of two terms: one is nonconvex and smooth, and another is convex but simple and its structure is known.…
In this two-part paper, we propose a general algorithmic framework for the minimization of a nonconvex smooth function subject to nonconvex smooth constraints. The algorithm solves a sequence of (separable) strongly convex problems and…
We initiate the study of nonsmooth optimization problems under bounded local subgradient variation, which postulates bounded difference between (sub)gradients in small local regions around points, in either average or maximum sense. The…