Related papers: Global convergence of optimized adaptive importanc…

Importance sampling is used to approximate Bayes' rule in many computational approaches to Bayesian inverse problems, data assimilation and machine learning. This paper reviews and further investigates the required sample size for…

In this paper, the minimization of computational cost on evaluating multi-dimensional integrals is explored. More specifically, a method based on an adaptive scheme for error variance selection in Monte Carlo integration (MCI) is presented.…

We study the problem of estimating a multivariate convex function defined on a convex body in a regression setting with random design. We are interested in optimal rates of convergence under a squared global continuous $l_2$ loss in the…

Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) have received an increased interest in the last years. In BNNs, a complete posterior distribution of the unknown weight and bias parameters of the network is produced during the training stage. This…

This paper considers mean square error (MSE) analysis for stochastic gradient sampling algorithms applied to underdamped Langevin dynamics under a global convexity assumption. A novel discrete Poisson equation framework is developed to…

To conduct Bayesian inference with large data sets, it is often convenient or necessary to distribute the data across multiple machines. We consider a likelihood function expressed as a product of terms, each associated with a subset of the…

Optimization problems with the objective function in the form of weighted sum and linear equality constraints are considered. Given that the number of local cost functions can be large as well as the number of constraints, a stochastic…

We apply the sample average approximation (SAA) method to risk-neutral optimization problems governed by nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) with random inputs. We analyze the consistency of the SAA optimal values and SAA…

We present the parallel and interacting stochastic approximation annealing (PISAA) algorithm, a stochastic simulation procedure for global optimisation, that extends and improves the stochastic approximation annealing (SAA) by using…

Monte Carlo sampling techniques have broad applications in machine learning, Bayesian posterior inference, and parameter estimation. Often the target distribution takes the form of a product distribution over a dataset with a large number…

Estimating rare events in complex systems is a key challenge in reliability analysis. The challenge grows in multimodal problems, where traditional methods often rely on a small set of design points and risk overlooking critical failure…

Annealed Importance Sampling (AIS) synthesizes weighted samples from an intractable distribution given its unnormalized density function. This algorithm relies on a sequence of interpolating distributions bridging the target to an initial…

Standard approaches for global optimization of non-convex functions, such as branch-and-bound, maintain partition trees to systematically prune the domain. The tree size grows exponentially in the number of dimensions. We propose new…

While optimizing convex objective (loss) functions has been a powerhouse for machine learning for at least two decades, non-convex loss functions have attracted fast growing interests recently, due to many desirable properties such as…

We study robust high-dimensional sparse regression under finite-variance heavy-tailed noise, epsilon-contamination, and alpha-mixing dependence via two subsampling estimators: Adaptive Importance Sampling (AIS) and Stratified Sub-sampling…

The paper proposes a Riemannian Manifold Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampler to resolve the shortcomings of existing Monte Carlo algorithms when sampling from target densities that may be high dimensional and exhibit strong correlations. The…

We present an optimization algorithm that can identify a global minimum of a potentially nonconvex smooth function with high probability, assuming the Gibbs measure of the potential satisfies a logarithmic Sobolev inequality. Our…

Consensus-based optimization (CBO) is a multi-agent metaheuristic derivative-free optimization algorithm that has proven to be capable of globally minimizing nonconvex nonsmooth functions across a diverse range of applications while being…

An essential problem in statistics and machine learning is the estimation of expectations involving PDFs with intractable normalizing constants. The self-normalized importance sampling (SNIS) estimator, which normalizes the IS weights, has…

Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are a powerful and commonly used family of numerical methods for sampling from complex probability distributions. As applications of these methods increase in size and complexity, the need for efficient…