Related papers: Two 6-approximation Algorithms for the Stochastic …
We revisit the Stochastic Score Classification (SSC) problem introduced by Gkenosis et al. (ESA 2018): We are given $n$ tests. Each test $j$ can be conducted at cost $c_j$, and it succeeds independently with probability $p_j$. Further, a…
Sequential testing problems involve a complex system with several components, each of which is "working" with some independent probability. The outcome of each component can be determined by performing a test, which incurs some cost. The…
Stochastic Boolean Function Evaluation is the problem of determining the value of a given Boolean function f on an unknown input x, when each bit of x_i of x can only be determined by paying an associated cost c_i. The assumption is that x…
We introduce a statistical physics inspired supervised machine learning algorithm for classification and regression problems. The method is based on the invariances or stability of predicted results when known data is represented as…
We develop a stochastic approximation-type algorithm to solve finite state/action, infinite-horizon, risk-aware Markov decision processes. Our algorithm has two loops. The inner loop computes the risk by solving a stochastic saddle-point…
Cost-Sensitive Online Classification has drawn extensive attention in recent years, where the main approach is to directly online optimize two well-known cost-sensitive metrics: (i) weighted sum of sensitivity and specificity; (ii) weighted…
The two-stage stochastic unit commitment problem has become an important tool to support decision-making under uncertainty in power systems. Representing the uncertainty by a large number of scenarios guarantees accurate results but…
We resolve a long-standing open question, about the existence of a constant-factor approximation algorithm for the average-case \textsc{Decision Tree} problem with uniform probability distribution over the hypotheses. We answer the question…
This article presents a short and concise description of stochastic approximation algorithms in reinforcement learning of Markov decision processes. The algorithms can also be used as a suboptimal method for partially observed Markov…
We study a general stochastic ranking problem where an algorithm needs to adaptively select a sequence of elements so as to "cover" a random scenario (drawn from a known distribution) at minimum expected cost. The coverage of each scenario…
It has been found that stochastic algorithms often find good solutions much more rapidly than inherently-batch approaches. Indeed, a very useful rule of thumb is that often, when solving a machine learning problem, an iterative technique…
This paper presents a new approach to statistical similarity assessment based on sequence alignment. The algorithm performs mutual matching of two random sequences by successively searching for common elements and by applying sequence…
In this paper, we introduce a new stochastic approximation (SA) type algorithm, namely the randomized stochastic gradient (RSG) method, for solving an important class of nonlinear (possibly nonconvex) stochastic programming (SP) problems.…
We provide a unifying approximate dynamic programming framework that applies to a broad variety of problems involving sequential estimation. We consider first the construction of surrogate cost functions for the purposes of optimization,…
We formulate selecting the best optimizing system (SBOS) problems and provide solutions for those problems. In an SBOS problem, a finite number of systems are contenders. Inside each system, a continuous decision variable affects the…
We study a class of nonconvex nonsmooth optimization problems in which the objective is a sum of two functions: One function is the average of a large number of differentiable functions, while the other function is proper, lower…
We consider the P2P orienteering problem on general metrics and present a (2+{\epsilon}) approximation algorithm. In the stochastic P2P orienteering problem we are given a metric and each node has a fixed reward and random size. The goal is…
Multi-time-scale stochastic approximation is an iterative algorithm for finding the fixed point of a set of $N$ coupled operators given their noisy samples. It has been observed that due to the coupling between the decision variables and…
Approximate Bayesian computation performs approximate inference for models where likelihood computations are expensive or impossible. Instead simulations from the model are performed for various parameter values and accepted if they are…
We propose a method of bi-coordinate variations for non-stationary and non-smooth optimization problems, which involve a single linear equality and box constraints. Here only approximation sequences are known instead of exact values of the…