Related papers: A universal black-box optimization method with alm…
Finding the global minimum of non-convex functions is one of the main and most difficult problems in modern optimization. In the first part of the paper, we consider a certain class of "good" non-convex functions that can be bounded above…
We study structured convex optimization problems, with additive objective $r:=p + q$, where $r$ is ($\mu$-strongly) convex, $q$ is $L_q$-smooth and convex, and $p$ is $L_p$-smooth, possibly nonconvex. For such a class of problems, we…
We consider in this paper a class of composite optimization problems whose objective function is given by the summation of a general smooth and nonsmooth component, together with a relatively simple nonsmooth term. We present a new class of…
We consider the problem of minimizing a smooth, Lipschitz, convex function over a compact, convex set using sub-zeroth-order oracles: an oracle that outputs the sign of the directional derivative for a given point and a given direction, an…
Non-analytical objectives and constraints often arise in control systems, particularly in problems with complex dynamics, which are challenging yet lack efficient solution methods. In this work, we consider general constrained optimization…
Black-box optimization is primarily important for many compute-intensive applications, including reinforcement learning (RL), robot control, etc. This paper presents a novel theoretical framework for black-box optimization, in which our…
We show that the primal-dual gradient method, also known as the gradient descent ascent method, for solving convex-concave minimax problems can be viewed as an inexact gradient method applied to the primal problem. The gradient, whose exact…
This paper develops negative curvature methods for continuous nonlinear unconstrained optimization in stochastic settings, in which function, gradient, and Hessian information is available only through probabilistic oracles, i.e., oracles…
Finite-difference methods are a class of algorithms designed to solve black-box optimization problems by approximating a gradient of the target function on a set of directions. In black-box optimization, the non-smooth setting is…
Incremental gradient and incremental proximal methods are a fundamental class of optimization algorithms used for solving finite sum problems, broadly studied in the literature. Yet, without strong convexity, their convergence guarantees…
We propose a new first-order method for minimizing nonconvex functions with Lipschitz continuous gradients and H\"older continuous Hessians. The proposed algorithm is a heavy-ball method equipped with two particular restart mechanisms. It…
A parametric class of trust-region algorithms for unconstrained nonconvex optimization is considered where the value of the objective function is never computed. The class contains a deterministic version of the first-order Adagrad method…
Black-box global optimization aims at minimizing an objective function whose analytical form is not known. To do so, many state-of-the-art methods rely on sampling-based strategies, where sampling distributions are built in an iterative…
The gradient descent method aims at finding local minima of a given multivariate function by moving along the direction of its gradient, and hence, the algorithm typically involves computing all partial derivatives of a given function,…
We consider non-smooth saddle point optimization problems. To solve these problems, we propose a zeroth-order method under bounded or Lipschitz continuous noise, possible adversarial. In contrast to the state-of-the-art algorithms, our…
The graduated optimization approach, also known as the continuation method, is a popular heuristic to solving non-convex problems that has received renewed interest over the last decade. Despite its popularity, very little is known in terms…
Deep neural networks (DNNs) have shown great success in many machine learning tasks. Their training is challenging since the loss surface of the network architecture is generally non-convex, or even non-smooth. How and under what…
We present a stochastic descent algorithm for unconstrained optimization that is particularly efficient when the objective function is slow to evaluate and gradients are not easily obtained, as in some PDE-constrained optimization and…
We propose a random-subspace algorithmic framework for global optimization of Lipschitz-continuous objectives, and analyse its convergence using novel tools from conic integral geometry. X-REGO randomly projects, in a sequential or…
In this paper we present a new method for solving optimization problems involving the sum of two proper, convex, lower semicontinuous functions, one of which has Lipschitz continuous gradient. The proposed method has a hybrid nature that…