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In this work, we develop analysis and algorithms for a class of (stochastic) bilevel optimization problems whose lower-level (LL) problem is strongly convex and linearly constrained. Most existing approaches for solving such problems rely…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-08 Prashant Khanduri , Ioannis Tsaknakis , Yihua Zhang , Sijia Liu , Mingyi Hong

Recently, convex nested stochastic composite optimization (NSCO) has received considerable attention for its applications in reinforcement learning and risk-averse optimization. The current NSCO algorithms have worse stochastic oracle…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-22 Zhe Zhang , Guanghui Lan

We present two easy-to-implement gradient-free/zeroth-order methods to optimize a stochastic non-smooth function accessible only via a black-box. The methods are built upon efficient first-order methods in the heavy-tailed case, i.e., when…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-25 Nikita Kornilov , Alexander Gasnikov , Pavel Dvurechensky , Darina Dvinskikh

We consider the nonsmooth convex composition optimization problem where the objective is a composition of two finite-sum functions and analyze stochastic compositional variance reduced gradient (SCVRG) methods for them. SCVRG and its…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-08-01 Tianyi Lin , Chenyou Fan , Mengdi Wang

Although upper bound guarantees for bilevel optimization have been widely studied, progress on lower bounds has been limited due to the complexity of the bilevel structure. In this work, we focus on the smooth nonconvex-strongly-convex…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-27 Kaiyi Ji

Algorithms for bilevel optimization often encounter Hessian computations, which are prohibitive in high dimensions. While recent works offer first-order methods for unconstrained bilevel problems, the constrained setting remains relatively…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-22 Guy Kornowski , Swati Padmanabhan , Kai Wang , Zhe Zhang , Suvrit Sra

Classical stochastic gradient methods are well suited for minimizing expected-value objective functions. However, they do not apply to the minimization of a nonlinear function involving expected values or a composition of two expected-value…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2014-11-17 Mengdi Wang , Ethan X. Fang , Han Liu

We develop two new stochastic Gauss-Newton algorithms for solving a class of non-convex stochastic compositional optimization problems frequently arising in practice. We consider both the expectation and finite-sum settings under standard…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-07-06 Quoc Tran-Dinh , Nhan H. Pham , Lam M. Nguyen

This paper is devoted to the study of the solution of a stochastic convex black box optimization problem. Where the black box problem means that the gradient-free oracle only returns the value of objective function, not its gradient. We…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-04-18 Aleksandr Lobanov

We study a class of bilevel optimization problems in which both the upper- and lower-level problems have minimax structures. This setting captures a broad range of emerging applications. Despite the extensive literature on bilevel…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-11 Yiyang Shen , Yutian He , Weiran Wang , Qihang Lin

This paper deals with stochastic optimization problems involving Markovian noise with a zero-order oracle. We present and analyze a novel derivative-free method for solving such problems in strongly convex smooth and non-smooth settings…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-01-06 Boris Prokhorov , Semyon Chebykin , Alexander Gasnikov , Aleksandr Beznosikov

Convex composition optimization is an emerging topic that covers a wide range of applications arising from stochastic optimal control, reinforcement learning and multi-stage stochastic programming. Existing algorithms suffer from…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-09-01 Tianyi Lin , Chenyou Fan , Mengdi Wang , Michael I. Jordan

In this paper we analyze a zeroth-order proximal stochastic gradient method suitable for the minimization of weakly convex stochastic optimization problems. We consider nonsmooth and nonlinear stochastic composite problems, for which…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-21 Spyridon Pougkakiotis , Dionysios S. Kalogerias

Stochastic compositional minimax problems are prevalent in machine learning, yet there are only limited established on the convergence of this class of problems. In this paper, we propose a formal definition of the stochastic compositional…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-08-23 Yuyang Deng , Fuli Qiao , Mehrdad Mahdavi

Constrained second-order convex optimization algorithms are the method of choice when a high accuracy solution to a problem is needed, due to their local quadratic convergence. These algorithms require the solution of a constrained…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-06-13 Alejandro Carderera , Sebastian Pokutta

Stochastic compositional optimization minimizes objectives of the form $\min_{\bm{x} \in \mathcal{X}} F(\bm{f}(\bm{x}), \bm{x})$, where $\bm{f}$ is accessible only through noisy stochastic queries. Existing methods for this problem assume…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-18 El Mahdi Chayti

We study projection-free methods for functional constrained optimization with convex or smooth nonconvex objectives. Such problems arise in applications such as portfolio optimization and radiation therapy planning, where risk-aware…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-12 Yi Cheng , Guanghui Lan , Saeed Masiha , H. Edwin Romeijn

This paper investigates a class of stochastic bilevel optimization problems where the upper-level function is nonconvex with potentially unbounded smoothness and the lower-level problem is strongly convex. These problems have significant…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-16 Xiaochuan Gong , Jie Hao , Mingrui Liu

Recent works have developed new projection-free first-order methods based on utilizing linesearches and normal vector computations to maintain feasibility. These oracles can be cheaper than orthogonal projection or linear optimization…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-05-01 Thabo Samakhoana , Benjamin Grimmer

In this paper we consider stochastic composite convex optimization problems with the objective function satisfying a stochastic bounded gradient condition, with or without a quadratic functional growth property. These models include the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-03-10 Ion Necoara