Related papers: On the Convergence of Prior-Guided Zeroth-Order Op…
While classic work in convex-concave min-max optimization relies on average-iterate convergence results, the emergence of nonconvex applications such as training Generative Adversarial Networks has led to renewed interest in last-iterate…
We propose a new framework for analyzing zeroth-order optimization (ZOO) from the perspective of \emph{oblivious randomized sketching}.In this framework, commonly used gradient estimators in ZOO-such as finite difference (FD) and random…
Sparse approximation is important in many applications because of concise form of an approximant and good accuracy guarantees. The theory of compressed sensing, which proved to be very useful in the image processing and data sciences, is…
In this paper, we propose and analyze zeroth-order stochastic approximation algorithms for nonconvex and convex optimization, with a focus on addressing constrained optimization, high-dimensional setting and saddle-point avoiding. To handle…
In this paper, we study zeroth-order algorithms for nonconvex minimax problems with coupled linear constraints under the deterministic and stochastic settings, which have attracted wide attention in machine learning, signal processing and…
In distributed optimization problems, a technique called gradient coding, which involves replicating data points, has been used to mitigate the effect of straggling machines. Recent work has studied approximate gradient coding, which…
While fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) for specific tasks often yields impressive results, it comes at the cost of memory inefficiency due to back-propagation in gradient-based training. Memory-efficient Zeroth-order (MeZO)…
In this paper, we design and analyze a new family of adaptive subgradient methods for solving an important class of weakly convex (possibly nonsmooth) stochastic optimization problems. Adaptive methods that use exponential moving averages…
The study of greedy approximation in the context of convex optimization is becoming a promising research direction as greedy algorithms are actively being employed to construct sparse minimizers for convex functions with respect to given…
We develop a gradient-like algorithm to minimize a sum of peer objective functions based on coordination through a peer interconnection network. The coordination admits two stages: the first is to constitute a gradient, possibly with…
The paper discusses derivative-free optimization (DFO), which involves minimizing a function without access to gradients or directional derivatives, only function evaluations. Classical DFO methods, which mimic gradient-based methods, such…
In this paper, we study the standard formulation of an optimization problem when the computation of gradient is not available. Such a problem can be classified as a "black box" optimization problem, since the oracle returns only the value…
The zeroth-order optimization has been widely used in machine learning applications. However, the theoretical study of the zeroth-order optimization focus on the algorithms which approximate (first-order) gradients using (zeroth-order)…
In this study, we investigate the performance of two novel first-order optimization algorithms, namely the rescaled-gradient flow (RGF) and the signed-gradient flow (SGF). These algorithms are derived from the forward Euler discretization…
Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization has emerged as a promising alternative to gradient-based backpropagation methods, particularly for black-box optimization and large language model (LLM) fine-tuning. However, ZO methods often suffer from slow…
We study nonconvex zeroth-order optimization (ZOO) in a high-dimensional space $\mathbb R^d$ for functions with approximately $s$-sparse gradients. To reduce the dependence on the dimensionality $d$ in the query complexity, high-dimensional…
This paper proposes a distributed optimization algorithm with a convergence time that can be assigned in advance according to task requirements. To this end, a sliding manifold is introduced to achieve the sum of local gradients approaching…
Rapid advances in data collection and processing capabilities have allowed for the use of increasingly complex models that give rise to nonconvex optimization problems. These formulations, however, can be arbitrarily difficult to solve in…
Incorporating a deep generative model as the prior distribution in inverse problems has established substantial success in reconstructing images from corrupted observations. Notwithstanding, the existing optimization approaches use gradient…
In this paper, we study zeroth-order algorithms for nonconvex-concave minimax problems, which have attracted widely attention in machine learning, signal processing and many other fields in recent years. We propose a zeroth-order…