Related papers: Black-Box Min--Max Continuous Optimization Using C…
We focus on the challenge of finding a diverse collection of quality solutions on complex continuous domains. While quality diver-sity (QD) algorithms like Novelty Search with Local Competition (NSLC) and MAP-Elites are designed to generate…
When solving optimization problems with black-box approaches, the algorithms gather valuable information about the problem instance during the optimization process. This information is used to adjust the distributions from which new…
Submodular optimization finds applications in machine learning and data mining. In this paper, we study the problem of maximizing functions of the form $h = f-c$, where $f$ is a monotone, non-negative, weakly submodular set function and $c$…
Submodular maximization generalizes many fundamental problems in discrete optimization, including Max-Cut in directed/undirected graphs, maximum coverage, maximum facility location and marketing over social networks. In this paper we…
Optimization problems under affine constraints appear in various areas of machine learning. We consider the task of minimizing a smooth strongly convex function F(x) under the affine constraint Kx=b, with an oracle providing evaluations of…
This study modifies the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) algorithm for multi-modal optimization problems. The enhancements focus on addressing the challenges of multiple global minima, improving the algorithm's…
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in mathematical models leading to the minimization, in a symmetric matrix space, of a Bregman divergence coupled with a regularization term. We address problems of this type within a…
Optimization of convex functions under stochastic zeroth-order feedback has been a major and challenging question in online learning. In this work, we consider the problem of optimizing second-order smooth and strongly convex functions…
We address the problem of minimizing a convex smooth function $f(x)$ over a compact polyhedral set $D$ given a stochastic zeroth-order constraint feedback model. This problem arises in safety-critical machine learning applications, such as…
We propose a computationally efficient limited memory Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy for large scale optimization, which we call the LM-CMA-ES. The LM-CMA-ES is a stochastic, derivative-free algorithm for numerical…
In this work, we study optimization problems of the form $\min_x \max_y f(x, y)$, where $f(x, y)$ is defined on a product Riemannian manifold $\mathcal{M} \times \mathcal{N}$ and is $\mu_x$-strongly geodesically convex (g-convex) in $x$ and…
This paper considers an optimization problem for a dynamical system whose evolution depends on a collection of binary decision variables. We develop scalable approximation algorithms with provable suboptimality bounds to provide…
We propose a new framework for black-box convex optimization which is well-suited for situations where gradient computations are expensive. We derive a new method for this framework which leverages several concepts from convex optimization,…
We propose a new algorithm to solve optimization problems of the form $\min f(X)$ for a smooth function $f$ under the constraints that $X$ is positive semidefinite and the diagonal blocks of $X$ are small identity matrices. Such problems…
In this paper some adaptive mirror descent algorithms for problems of minimization convex objective functional with several convex Lipschitz (generally, non-smooth) functional constraints are considered. It is shown that the methods are…
We study the problem of zeroth-order (black-box) optimization of a Lipschitz function $f$ defined on a compact subset $\mathcal X$ of $\mathbb R^d$, with the additional constraint that algorithms must certify the accuracy of their…
Based on the stochastic maximum principle for the partially coupled forward-backward stochastic control system (FBSCS for short), a modified method of successive approximations (MSA for short) is established for stochastic recursive optimal…
Inspired by regularization techniques in statistics and machine learning, we study complementary composite minimization in the stochastic setting. This problem corresponds to the minimization of the sum of a (weakly) smooth function endowed…
Black-box policy optimization is a class of reinforcement learning algorithms that explores and updates the policies at the parameter level. This class of algorithms is widely applied in robotics with movement primitives or…
We propose an approach to saddle point optimization relying only on oracles that solve minimization problems approximately. We analyze its convergence property on a strongly convex--concave problem and show its linear convergence toward the…