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Non-convex functional constrained optimization problems have gained substantial attention in machine learning and data science, addressing broad requirements that typically go beyond the often performance-centric objectives. An influential…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-29 Sang Bin Moon , Jong Gwang Kim , Ashish Chandra , Christopher Brinton , Abolfazl Hashemi

"Classical" First Order (FO) algorithms of convex optimization, such as Mirror Descent algorithm or Nesterov's optimal algorithm of smooth convex optimization, are well known to have optimal (theoretical) complexity estimates which do not…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2013-08-27 Bruce Cox , Anatoli Juditsky , Arkadi Nemirovski

The augmented Lagrangian method (ALM) is a benchmark for convex programming problems with linear constraints; ALM and its variants for linearly equality-constrained convex minimization models have been well studied in the literature.…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-22 Bingsheng He , Shengjie Xu , Jing Yuan

We address the problem of minimizing a smooth function $f^0(x)$ over a compact set $D$ defined by smooth functional constraints $f^i(x)\leq 0,~ i = 1,\ldots, m$ given noisy value measurements of $f^i(x)$. This problem arises in…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-12-20 Ilnura Usmanova , Andreas Krause , Maryam Kamgarpour

Large language models have demonstrated exceptional capabilities across diverse tasks, but their fine-tuning demands significant memory, posing challenges for resource-constrained environments. Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization provides a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-18 Zhen Zhang , Yifan Yang , Kai Zhen , Nathan Susanj , Athanasios Mouchtaris , Siegfried Kunzmann , Zheng Zhang

In this paper, we adopt the augmented Lagrangian method (ALM) to solve convex quadratic second-order cone programming problems (SOCPs). Fruitful results on the efficiency of the ALM have been established in the literature. Recently, it has…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-10-26 Ling Liang , Defeng Sun , Kim-Chuan Toh

Saddle-point problems have recently gained increased attention from the machine learning community, mainly due to applications in training Generative Adversarial Networks using stochastic gradients. At the same time, in some applications…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-09-07 Abdurakhmon Sadiev , Aleksandr Beznosikov , Pavel Dvurechensky , Alexander Gasnikov

This paper proposes and establishes the iteration-complexity of an inexact proximal accelerated augmented Lagrangian (IPAAL) method for solving linearly constrained smooth nonconvex composite optimization problems. Each IPAAL iteration…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-06-16 Jefferson G. Melo , Renato D. C. Monteiro , Hairong Wang

In this paper, we design and analyze a new zeroth-order online algorithm, namely, the zeroth-order online alternating direction method of multipliers (ZOO-ADMM), which enjoys dual advantages of being gradient-free operation and employing…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-02-20 Sijia Liu , Jie Chen , Pin-Yu Chen , Alfred O. Hero

In this paper, we consider online convex optimization (OCO) with time-varying loss and constraint functions. Specifically, the decision maker chooses sequential decisions based only on past information, meantime the loss and constraint…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-05-20 Haoyang Liu , Xiantao Xiao , Liwei Zhang

Incentive-based load curtailment unlocks critical demand-side flexibility but is hindered by the limited knowledge of private user parameters and the inherent nonsmoothness of responses due to physical device constraints. We address this…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-05-27 Zhisen Jiang , Florian Dörfler , Saverio Bolognani

In a recent work (arXiv-DOI: 1804.08072v1) we introduced the Modified Augmented Lagrangian Method (MALM) for the efficient minimization of objective functions with large quadratic penalty terms. From MALM there results an optimality…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2018-06-22 Martin Neuenhofen

We present a numerical method for the minimization of constrained optimization problems where the objective is augmented with large quadratic penalties of inconsistent equality constraints. Such objectives arise from quadratic integral…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-08-16 Martin Neuenhofen , Eric Kerrigan

This work considers stochastic optimization problems in which the objective function values can only be computed by a blackbox corrupted by some random noise following an unknown distribution. The proposed method is based on sequential…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-15 Charles Audet , Jean Bigeon , Romain Couderc , Michael Kokkolaras

Frequently, the burgeoning field of black-box optimization encounters challenges due to a limited understanding of the mechanisms of the objective function. To address such problems, in this work we focus on the deterministic concept of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-12-30 Aleksandr Lobanov , Alexander Gasnikov , Andrei Krasnov

Fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) with first-order methods like back-propagation is computationally intensive. Zeroth-Order (ZO) optimisation uses function evaluations instead of gradients, reducing memory usage, but suffers from…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-07-24 Alessio Galatolo , Zhenbang Dai , Katie Winkle , Meriem Beloucif

Zeroth-order (ZO, also known as derivative-free) methods, which estimate the gradient only by two function evaluations, have attracted much attention recently because of its broad applications in machine learning community. The two function…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-04-12 Zhou Zhai , Bin Gu , Heng Huang

Derivative-free - or zeroth-order - optimization (DFO) has gained recent attention for its ability to solve problems in a variety of application areas, including machine learning, particularly involving objectives which are stochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-08-04 Coralia Cartis , Tyler Ferguson , Lindon Roberts

Black-box algorithms are designed to optimize functions without relying on their underlying analytical structure or gradient information, making them essential when gradients are inaccessible or difficult to compute. Traditional methods for…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-21 Yedidya Kfir , Elad Sarafian , Sarit Kraus , Yoram Louzoun

The paper addresses the problem of optimizing a class of composite functions on Riemannian manifolds and a new first order optimization algorithm (FOA) with a fast convergence rate is proposed. Through the theoretical analysis for FOA, it…

Numerical Analysis · Computer Science 2015-12-08 Haoran Chen , Yanfeng Sun , Junbin Gao , Yongli Hu