Related papers: Procrastinated Tree Search: Black-box Optimization…

This paper introduces a modified Byrd-Omojokun (BO) trust region algorithm to address the challenges posed by noisy function and gradient evaluations. The original BO method was designed to solve equality constrained problems and it forms…

We study a stochastic budget-allocation problem over $K$ tasks. At each round $t$, the learner chooses an allocation $X_t \in \Delta_K$. Task $k$ succeeds with probability $F_k(X_{t,k})$, where $F_1,\dots,F_K$ are nondecreasing…

Due to simplicity and strong stability guarantees, predictor feedback methods have stood as a popular approach for time delay systems since the 1950s. For time-varying delays, however, implementation requires computing a prediction horizon…

We take a systematic look at the problem of storing whole files in a cache with limited capacity in the context of optimistic learning, where the caching policy has access to a prediction oracle (provided by, e.g., a Neural Network). The…

Designing search algorithms for finding global optima is one of the most active research fields, recently. These algorithms consist of two main categories, i.e., classic mathematical and metaheuristic algorithms. This article proposes a…

Competitive program generation aims to automatically produce correct and efficient solutions for programming-contest problems under strict time and memory constraints. Existing LLM-based approaches often fail to perform explicit algorithmic…

Bayesian Optimization (BO) is widely used for optimising black-box functions but requires us to specify the length scale hyperparameter, which defines the smoothness of the functions the optimizer will consider. Most current BO algorithms…

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), most famously used in game-play artificial intelligence (e.g., the game of Go), is a well-known strategy for constructing approximate solutions to sequential decision problems. Its primary innovation is the…

Chain-of-Thought reasoning has significantly enhanced the problem-solving capabilities of Large Language Models. Unfortunately, current models generate reasoning steps sequentially without foresight, often becoming trapped in suboptimal…

Machine learned models often must abide by certain requirements (e.g., fairness or legal). This has spurred interested in developing approaches that can provably verify whether a model satisfies certain properties. This paper introduces a…

Sparse decision tree optimization has been one of the most fundamental problems in AI since its inception and is a challenge at the core of interpretable machine learning. Sparse decision tree optimization is computationally hard, and…

We consider quantile optimization of black-box functions that are estimated with noise. We propose two new iterative three-timescale local search algorithms. The first algorithm uses an appropriately modified finite-difference-based…

This paper addresses Online Convex Optimization (OCO) problems where the constraints have additive perturbations that (i) vary over time and (ii) are not known at the time to make a decision. Perturbations may not be i.i.d. generated and…

We study the multi-armed bandit problem with adversarially chosen delays in the Best-of-Both-Worlds (BoBW) framework, which aims to achieve near-optimal performance in both stochastic and adversarial environments. While prior work has made…

We consider Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) applied to Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) and Partially Observable MDPs (POMDPs), and the well-known Upper Confidence bound for Trees (UCT) algorithm. In UCT, a tree with nodes (states) and edges…

The increasing use of autonomous robot systems in hazardous environments underscores the need for efficient search and rescue operations. Despite significant advancements, existing literature on object search often falls short in overcoming…

We propose a new algorithm for adversarial multi-armed bandits with unrestricted delays. The algorithm is based on a novel hybrid regularizer applied in the Follow the Regularized Leader (FTRL) framework. It achieves…

Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) has achieved state-of-the-art results in many domains such as Go and Atari games when combining with deep neural networks (DNNs). When more simulations are executed, MCTS can achieve higher performance but…

Black-box zero-th order optimization is a central primitive for applications in fields as diverse as finance, physics, and engineering. In a common formulation of this problem, a designer sequentially attempts candidate solutions, receiving…

External test-time reasoning enhances large language models (LLMs) by decoupling generation and selection. At inference time, the model generates multiple reasoning paths, and an auxiliary process reward model (PRM) is used to score and…