Related papers: Non-asymptotic estimates for TUSLA algorithm for n…
In stochastic optimization, a common tool to deal sequentially with large sample is to consider the well-known stochastic gradient algorithm. Nevertheless, since the stepsequence is the same for each direction, this can lead to bad results…
This paper considers smooth convex optimization problems with many functional constraints. To solve this general class of problems we propose a new stochastic perturbed augmented Lagrangian method, called SGDPA, where a perturbation is…
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…
Driven by the need to solve increasingly complex optimization problems in signal processing and machine learning, there has been increasing interest in understanding the behavior of gradient-descent algorithms in non-convex environments.…
Adaptive algorithms like AdaGrad and AMSGrad are successful in nonconvex optimization owing to their parameter-agnostic ability -- requiring no a priori knowledge about problem-specific parameters nor tuning of learning rates. However, when…
Gradient clipping is a commonly used technique to stabilize the training process of neural networks. A growing body of studies has shown that gradient clipping is a promising technique for dealing with the heavy-tailed behavior that emerged…
We investigate 1) the rate at which refined properties of the empirical risk---in particular, gradients---converge to their population counterparts in standard non-convex learning tasks, and 2) the consequences of this convergence for…
This paper proposes a framework to study the convergence of stochastic optimization and learning algorithms. The framework is modeled over the different challenges that these algorithms pose, such as (i) the presence of random additive…
We study fundamental limits of first-order stochastic optimization in a range of nonconvex settings, including L-smooth functions satisfying Quasar-Convexity (QC), Quadratic Growth (QG), and Restricted Secant Inequalities (RSI). While the…
We study the Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics (SGLD) algorithm for non-convex optimization. The algorithm performs stochastic gradient descent, where in each step it injects appropriately scaled Gaussian noise to the update. We analyze…
This paper presents an algorithmic framework for solving unconstrained stochastic optimization problems using only stochastic function evaluations. We employ central finite-difference based gradient estimation methods to approximate the…
The idea of unfolding iterative algorithms as deep neural networks has been widely applied in solving sparse coding problems, providing both solid theoretical analysis in convergence rate and superior empirical performance. However, for…
One of the mysteries in the success of neural networks is randomly initialized first order methods like gradient descent can achieve zero training loss even though the objective function is non-convex and non-smooth. This paper demystifies…
We study local complexity measures for stochastic convex optimization problems, providing a local minimax theory analogous to that of H\'{a}jek and Le Cam for classical statistical problems. We give complementary optimality results,…
We study the problem of minimizing a strongly convex, smooth function when we have noisy estimates of its gradient. We propose a novel multistage accelerated algorithm that is universally optimal in the sense that it achieves the optimal…
For minimizing a strongly convex objective function subject to linear inequality constraints, we consider a penalty approach that allows one to utilize stochastic methods for problems with a large number of constraints and/or objective…
We study the overparametrization bounds required for the global convergence of stochastic gradient descent algorithm for a class of one hidden layer feed-forward neural networks, considering most of the activation functions used in…
This paper proposes a new algorithm -- the \underline{S}ingle-timescale Do\underline{u}ble-momentum \underline{St}ochastic \underline{A}pprox\underline{i}matio\underline{n} (SUSTAIN) -- for tackling stochastic unconstrained bilevel…
We consider a class of stochastic smooth convex optimization problems under rather general assumptions on the noise in the stochastic gradient observation. As opposed to the classical problem setting in which the variance of noise is…
Stochastic optimization has found wide applications in minimizing objective functions in machine learning, which motivates a lot of theoretical studies to understand its practical success. Most of existing studies focus on the convergence…