Related papers: FOSI: Hybrid First and Second Order Optimization
Zeroth-order optimization addresses problems where gradient information is inaccessible or impractical to compute. While most existing methods rely on first-order approximations, incorporating second-order (curvature) information can, in…
Federated learning (FL) is a distributed machine learning approach that enables multiple local clients and a central server to collaboratively train a model while keeping the data on their own devices. First-order methods, particularly…
This work presents a new algorithm for empirical risk minimization. The algorithm bridges the gap between first- and second-order methods by computing a search direction that uses a second-order-type update in one subspace, coupled with a…
In recent years, there has been significant interest in the development of machine learning-based optimization proxies for AC Optimal Power Flow (AC-OPF). Although significant progress has been achieved in predicting high-quality primal…
Optimizing large-scale nonconvex problems, common in deep learning, demands balancing rapid convergence with computational efficiency. First-order (FO) optimizers, which serve as today's baselines, provide fast convergence and good…
The study of first-order optimization algorithms (FOA) typically starts with assumptions on the objective functions, most commonly smoothness and strong convexity. These metrics are used to tune the hyperparameters of FOA. We introduce a…
Federated learning increasingly operates in a large-model regime where communication, memory, and computation are all scarce. Typically, non-IID client data induce drift that degrades the stability and performance of local training.…
First-order optimization methods remain the standard for training deep neural networks (DNNs). Optimizers like Adam incorporate limited curvature information by preconditioning the stochastic gradient with a diagonal matrix. Despite the…
Zeroth-order optimization is an important research topic in machine learning. In recent years, it has become a key tool in black-box adversarial attack to neural network based image classifiers. However, existing zeroth-order optimization…
An algorithm is proposed for solving optimization problems arising in neural network training for supervised learning. The unique feature of the algorithm is the use of an auxiliary loss, in addition to the original loss employed for model…
Finite-sum optimization problems are ubiquitous in machine learning, and are commonly solved using first-order methods which rely on gradient computations. Recently, there has been growing interest in \emph{second-order} methods, which rely…
Fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) using standard first-order (FO) optimization often drives training toward sharp, poorly generalizing minima. Conversely, zeroth-order (ZO) methods offer stronger exploratory behavior without relying…
This paper presents a novel and lightweight hyperparameter optimization (HPO) method, MOdular FActorial Design (MOFA). MOFA pursues several rounds of HPO, where each round alternates between exploration of hyperparameter space by factorial…
In reinforcement learning, an agent attempts to learn high-performing behaviors through interacting with the environment, such behaviors are often quantified in the form of a reward function. However some aspects of behavior-such as ones…
Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising method to collaboratively learn from decentralized and heterogeneous data available at different clients without the requirement of data ever leaving the clients. Recent works on FL have…
Minimizing loss functions is central to machine-learning training. Although first-order methods dominate practical applications, higher-order techniques such as Newton's method can deliver greater accuracy and faster convergence, yet are…
Optimization in machine learning, both theoretical and applied, is presently dominated by first-order gradient methods such as stochastic gradient descent. Second-order optimization methods, that involve second derivatives and/or second…
In this note, we propose a FISTA-type first order algorithm, VAR-FISTA, to solve a composite optimization problem. A distinctive feature of VAR-FISTA is its ability to exploit the convexity of the function in the problem, resulting in an…
Training deep neural networks (DNNs) used in modern machine learning is computationally expensive. Machine learning scientists, therefore, rely on stochastic first-order methods for training, coupled with significant hand-tuning, to obtain…
We consider federated learning (FL), where the training data is distributed across a large number of clients. The standard optimization method in this setting is Federated Averaging (FedAvg), which performs multiple local first-order…