Related papers: OFFO minimization algorithms for second-order opti…
We consider the fundamental problem in non-convex optimization of efficiently reaching a stationary point. In contrast to the convex case, in the long history of this basic problem, the only known theoretical results on first-order…
We provide new adaptive first-order methods for constrained convex optimization. Our main algorithms AdaACSA and AdaAGD+ are accelerated methods, which are universal in the sense that they achieve nearly-optimal convergence rates for both…
Zeroth-order optimization aims to minimize an objective function using only function evaluations, and is therefore fundamental in black-box optimization, hyperparameter tuning, bandit learning, and adversarial machine learning. While…
We provide a simple proof of convergence covering both the Adam and Adagrad adaptive optimization algorithms when applied to smooth (possibly non-convex) objective functions with bounded gradients. We show that in expectation, the squared…
We propose stochastic optimization algorithms that can find local minima faster than existing algorithms for nonconvex optimization problems, by exploiting the third-order smoothness to escape non-degenerate saddle points more efficiently.…
This paper considers a consensus optimization problem, where all the nodes in a network, with access to the zeroth-order information of its local objective function only, attempt to cooperatively achieve a common minimizer of the sum of…
In this paper, we try to uncover the second-order essence of several first-order optimization methods. For Nesterov Accelerated Gradient, we rigorously prove that the algorithm makes use of the difference between past and current gradients,…
We present a simple transformation of any linear program or semidefinite program into an equivalent convex optimization problem whose only constraints are linear equations. The objective function is defined on the whole space, making…
A novel approach is given to overcome the computational challenges of the full-matrix Adaptive Gradient algorithm (Full AdaGrad) in stochastic optimization. By developing a recursive method that estimates the inverse of the square root of…
"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…
We present a new family of min-max optimization algorithms that automatically exploit the geometry of the gradient data observed at earlier iterations to perform more informative extra-gradient steps in later ones. Thanks to this adaptation…
Zeroth-order optimization methods are developed to overcome the practical hurdle of having knowledge of explicit derivatives. Instead, these schemes work with merely access to noisy functions evaluations. One of the predominant approaches…
This paper considers convex programs with a general (possibly non-differentiable) convex objective function and Lipschitz continuous convex inequality constraint functions. A simple algorithm is developed and achieves an $O(1/t)$…
The incremental gradient method is a prominent algorithm for minimizing a finite sum of smooth convex functions, used in many contexts including large-scale data processing applications and distributed optimization over networks. It is a…
We consider model-based derivative-free optimization (DFO) for large-scale problems, based on iterative minimization in random subspaces. We provide the first worst-case complexity bound for such methods for convergence to approximate…
Safe derivative-free optimization under unknown constraints is a fundamental challenge in modern learning and control. Existing zeroth-order (ZO) methods typically still assume access to a first-order oracle of the constraint functions or…
We introduce a class of first-order methods for smooth constrained optimization that are based on an analogy to non-smooth dynamical systems. Two distinctive features of our approach are that (i) projections or optimizations over the entire…
Conditional Gradient algorithms (aka Frank-Wolfe algorithms) form a classical set of methods for constrained smooth convex minimization due to their simplicity, the absence of projection steps, and competitive numerical performance. While…
In this paper we investigate the convergence of a recently popular class of first-order primal-dual algorithms for saddle point problems under the presence of errors occurring in the proximal maps and gradients. We study several types of…
A new technique of global optimization and its applications in particular to neural networks are presented. The algorithm is also compared to other global optimization algorithms such as Gradient descent (GD), Monte Carlo (MC), Genetic…