Related papers: Adapting to Mixing Time in Stochastic Optimization…
Temporal-Difference (TD) learning with nonlinear smooth function approximation for policy evaluation has achieved great success in modern reinforcement learning. It is shown that such a problem can be reformulated as a stochastic…
We address distributed learning problems, both nonconvex and convex, over undirected networks. In particular, we design a novel algorithm based on the distributed Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) to address the challenges…
Due to its simplicity and outstanding ability to generalize, stochastic gradient descent (SGD) is still the most widely used optimization method despite its slow convergence. Meanwhile, adaptive methods have attracted rising attention of…
Correlations of an environment are crucial for the dynamics of non-Markovian quantum systems, which may not be known in advance. In this paper, we propose a gradient algorithm for identifying the correlations in terms of time-varying…
Stochastic optimization methods such as mirror descent have wide applications due to low computational cost. Those methods have been well studied under assumption of the independent and identical distribution, and usually achieve sublinear…
In this paper we present a dynamic programing approach to stochastic optimal control problems with dynamic, time-consistent risk constraints. Constrained stochastic optimal control problems, which naturally arise when one has to consider…
Langevin algorithms are gradient descent methods augmented with additive noise, and are widely used in Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling, optimization, and machine learning. In recent years, the non-asymptotic analysis of Langevin…
This paper studies the performative prediction problem where a learner aims to minimize the expected loss with a decision-dependent data distribution. Such setting is motivated when outcomes can be affected by the prediction model, e.g., in…
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…
This work aims to solve a stochastic nonconvex nonsmooth composite optimization problem. Previous works on composite optimization problem requires the major part to satisfy Lipschitz smoothness or some relaxed smoothness conditions, which…
We analyze stochastic algorithms for optimizing nonconvex, nonsmooth finite-sum problems, where the nonconvex part is smooth and the nonsmooth part is convex. Surprisingly, unlike the smooth case, our knowledge of this fundamental problem…
This paper considers unconstrained convex optimization problems with time-varying objective functions. We propose algorithms with a discrete time-sampling scheme to find and track the solution trajectory based on prediction and correction…
We study the so-called two-time-scale stochastic approximation, a simulation-based approach for finding the roots of two coupled nonlinear operators. Our focus is to characterize its finite-time performance in a Markov setting, which often…
We propose a new approach for estimating the finite dimensional transition matrix of a Markov chain using a large number of independent sample paths observed at random times. The sample paths may be observed as few as two times, and the…
We construct a new Markov chain Monte Carlo method on finite states with optimal choices of acceptance-rejection ratio functions. We prove that the constructed continuous time Markov jumping process has a global in-time convergence rate in…
The Markov Chain Monte Carlo method is the dominant paradigm for posterior computation in Bayesian analysis. It is common to control computation time by making approximations to the Markov transition kernel. Comparatively little attention…
We revisit the classical problem of approximating a stochastic differential equation by a discrete-time and discrete-space Markov chain. Our construction iterates Caratheodory's theorem over time to match the moments of the increments…
We present for the first time an asymptotic convergence analysis of two time-scale stochastic approximation driven by "controlled" Markov noise. In particular, the faster and slower recursions have non-additive controlled Markov noise…
We develop a tractable and flexible approach for incorporating side information into dynamic optimization under uncertainty. The proposed framework uses predictive machine learning methods (such as $k$-nearest neighbors, kernel regression,…
We consider stochastic optimal control of linear dynamical systems with additive non-Gaussian disturbance. We propose a novel, sampling-free approach, based on Fourier transformations and convex optimization, to cast the stochastic optimal…