Related papers: Derivative-Free Bound-Constrained Optimization for…

Offline optimization is a fundamental challenge in science and engineering, where the goal is to optimize black-box functions using only offline datasets. This setting is particularly relevant when querying the objective function is…

Gradient-based optimization is now ubiquitous across graphics, but unfortunately can not be applied to problems with undefined or zero gradients. To circumvent this issue, the loss function can be manually replaced by a ``surrogate'' that…

In physics and engineering, many processes are modeled using non-differentiable black-box simulators, making the optimization of such functions particularly challenging. To address such cases, inspired by the Gradient Theorem, we propose…

In this paper, we consider the problem of minimizing a smooth function, given as finite sum of black-box functions, over a convex set. In order to advantageously exploit the structure of the problem, for instance when the terms of the…

We develop an algorithm for minimizing a function using $n$ batched function value measurements at each of $T$ rounds by using classifiers to identify a function's sublevel set. We show that sufficiently accurate classifiers can achieve…

This work presents the first projection-free algorithm to solve stochastic bi-level optimization problems, where the objective function depends on the solution of another stochastic optimization problem. The proposed $\textbf{S}$tochastic…

Real-world optimisation problems typically have objective functions which cannot be expressed analytically. These optimisation problems are evaluated through expensive physical experiments or simulations. Cheap approximations of the…

We present DFO-LS, a software package for derivative-free optimization (DFO) for nonlinear Least-Squares (LS) problems, with optional bound constraints. Inspired by the Gauss-Newton method, DFO-LS constructs simplified linear regression…

Global optimization of black-box functions is challenging in high dimensions. We introduce a conceptual adaptive random search framework, Branching Adaptive Surrogate Search Optimization (BASSO), that combines partitioning and surrogate…

Optimisation problems often have multiple conflicting objectives that can be computationally and/or financially expensive. Mono-surrogate Bayesian optimisation (BO) is a popular model-based approach for optimising such black-box functions.…

This work proposes a framework for large-scale stochastic derivative-free optimization (DFO) by introducing STARS, a trust-region method based on iterative minimization in random subspaces. This framework is both an algorithmic and…

We describe the optimization algorithm implemented in the open-source derivative-free solver RBFOpt. The algorithm is based on the radial basis function method of Gutmann and the metric stochastic response surface method of Regis and…

Offline model-based optimization (MBO) aims to maximize a black-box objective function using only an offline dataset of designs and scores. These tasks span various domains, such as robotics, material design, and protein and molecular…

The superiorization methodology is intended to work with input data of constrained minimization problems, that is, a target function and a set of constraints. However, it is based on an antipodal way of thinking to what leads to constrained…

Bayesian optimization (BO) algorithms form a class of surrogate-based heuristics, aimed at efficiently computing high-quality solutions for numerical black-box optimization problems. The BO pipeline is highly modular, with different design…

In this paper, we consider the problem of black box continuous submodular maximization where we only have access to the function values and no information about the derivatives is provided. For a monotone and continuous DR-submodular…

We present a novel derivative-free interpolation based optimization algorithm. A trust-region method is used where a surrogate model is realized via an interpolation framework. The framework for interpolation is provided by Universal…

Interest in derivative-free optimization (DFO) and "evolutionary strategies" (ES) has recently surged in the Reinforcement Learning (RL) community, with growing evidence that they can match state of the art methods for policy optimization…

Optimization problems with nonlinear cost functions and combinatorial constraints appear in many real-world applications but remain challenging to solve efficiently compared to their linear counterparts. To bridge this gap, we propose…

Decades of progress in simulation-based surrogate-assisted optimization and unprecedented growth in computational power have enabled researchers and practitioners to optimize previously intractable complex engineering problems. This paper…