Related papers: The variance-penalized stochastic shortest path pr…
In this article we propose a Weighted Stochastic Mesh (WSM) Algorithm for approximating the value of a discrete and continuous time optimal stopping problem. We prove that in the discrete case the WSM algorithm leads to semi-tractability of…
We study a risk-constrained version of the stochastic shortest path (SSP) problem, where the risk measure considered is Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). We propose two algorithms that obtain a locally risk-optimal policy by employing four…
We introduce two new no-regret algorithms for the stochastic shortest path (SSP) problem with a linear MDP that significantly improve over the only existing results of (Vial et al., 2021). Our first algorithm is computationally efficient…
Markov decision processes (MDPs) are a popular model for performance analysis and optimization of stochastic systems. The parameters of stochastic behavior of MDPs are estimates from empirical observations of a system; their values are not…
In this paper the connection between stochastic optimal control and reinforcement learning is investigated. Our main motivation is to apply importance sampling to sampling rare events which can be reformulated as an optimal control problem.…
In this paper, we consider a stochastic decision problem for a system governed by a stochastic differential equation, in which an optimal decision is made in such a way to minimize a vector-valued accumulated cost over a finite-time horizon…
We study the Stochastic Shortest Path (SSP) problem in which an agent has to reach a goal state in minimum total expected cost. In the learning formulation of the problem, the agent has no prior knowledge about the costs and dynamics of the…
Multistage stochastic programming deals with operational and planning problems that involve a sequence of decisions over time while responding to realizations that are uncertain. Algorithms designed to address multistage stochastic linear…
We consider a discrete time stochastic queueing system where a controller makes a 2-stage decision every slot. The decision at the first stage reveals a hidden source of randomness with a control-dependent (but unknown) probability…
Process Planning and Scheduling (PPS) is an essential and practical topic but a very intractable problem in manufacturing systems. Many research use iterative methods to solve such problems; however, they cannot achieve satisfactory results…
In this paper, we consider an integrated MSP-MDP framework which captures features of Markov decision process (MDP) and multistage stochastic programming (MSP). The integrated framework allows one to study a dynamic decision-making process…
We develop a novel mathematical programming approximation framework to tackle the stochastic knapsack problem. In this problem, the decision maker considers items for which either weights or values, or both, are random. The aim is to select…
Motivated by recent progress on stochastic matching with few queries, we embark on a systematic study of the sparsification of stochastic packing problems (SPP) more generally. Specifically, we consider SPPs where elements are independently…
We present a novel accelerated primal-dual (APD) method for solving a class of deterministic and stochastic saddle point problems (SPP). The basic idea of this algorithm is to incorporate a multi-step acceleration scheme into the…
Markov decision process (MDP) is a decision making framework where a decision maker is interested in maximizing the expected discounted value of a stream of rewards received at future stages at various states which are visited according to…
In the Single Source Replacement Paths (SSRP) problem we are given a graph $G = (V, E)$, and a shortest paths tree $\widehat{K}$ rooted at a node $s$, and the goal is to output for every node $t \in V$ and for every edge $e$ in…
We study stochastic combinatorial optimization problems where the objective is to minimize the expected maximum load (a.k.a.\ the makespan). In this framework, we have a set of $n$ tasks and $m$ resources, where each task $j$ uses some…
We study stochastic motion planning problems which involve a controlled process, with possibly discontinuous sample paths, visiting certain subsets of the state-space while avoiding others in a sequential fashion. For this purpose, we first…
This paper addresses a class of robust stochastic optimal control problems. Its main contribution lies in the introduction of a general optimization model with variance penalization and an associated solution algorithm that improves…
In this work, we study discrete-time Markov decision processes (MDPs) under constraints with Borel state and action spaces and where all the performance functions have the same form of the expected total reward (ETR) criterion over the…