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Bilevel optimization is a powerful tool for many machine learning problems, such as hyperparameter optimization and meta-learning. Estimating hypergradients (also known as implicit gradients) is crucial for developing gradient-based methods…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-05-06 Youran Dong , Junfeng Yang , Wei Yao , Jin Zhang

Bilevel optimization is one of the fundamental problems in machine learning and optimization. Recent theoretical developments in bilevel optimization focus on finding the first-order stationary points for nonconvex-strongly-convex cases. In…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-05-11 Minhui Huang , Xuxing Chen , Kaiyi Ji , Shiqian Ma , Lifeng Lai

In this paper, we present new stochastic methods for solving two important classes of nonconvex optimization problems. We first introduce a randomized accelerated proximal gradient (RapGrad) method for solving a class of nonconvex…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-08-20 Guanghui Lan , Yu Yang

Stochastic gradient descent with momentum (SGDM) methods have become fundamental optimization tools in machine learning, combining the computational efficiency of stochastic gradients with the acceleration benefits of momentum. Despite…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-02 Zimeng Wang , Alp Yurtsever

Conditional stochastic optimization covers a variety of applications ranging from invariant learning and causal inference to meta-learning. However, constructing unbiased gradient estimators for such problems is challenging due to the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-06-04 Yifan Hu , Siqi Zhang , Xin Chen , Niao He

This paper studies the problem of stochastic bilevel optimization where the upper-level function is nonconvex with potentially unbounded smoothness and the lower-level function is strongly convex. This problem is motivated by meta-learning…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-12-31 Xiaochuan Gong , Jie Hao , Mingrui Liu

In machine learning, nonconvex optimization problems with multiple local optimums are often encountered. Graduated Optimization Algorithm (GOA) is a popular heuristic method to obtain global optimums of nonconvex problems through…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2017-07-11 Li Chen , Shuisheng Zhou , Zhuan Zhang

Bilevel optimization (BLO) becomes fundamentally more challenging when the lower-level objective admits multiple minimizers. Beyond the unique-minimizer setting, two difficulties arise: (1) evaluating the hyper-objective $F_{\max}$ requires…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-16 Saeed Masiha , Zebang Shen , Negar Kiyavash , Niao He

Standard federated optimization methods successfully apply to stochastic problems with single-level structure. However, many contemporary ML problems -- including adversarial robustness, hyperparameter tuning, and actor-critic -- fall under…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-09-15 Davoud Ataee Tarzanagh , Mingchen Li , Christos Thrampoulidis , Samet Oymak

In many applications, including Stackelberg games, machine learning, and power systems \cite{Mackay2018Selftuning,Heinrich1952The,Wang2021Bi-Level}, the decisions in a minimax optimization problem can be constrained by a solution to an…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-28 Yaling Hu , Jiani Wang , Yu-hong Dai , Xiaojiao Tong

We present in this paper novel accelerated fully first-order methods in \emph{Bilevel Optimization} (BLO). Firstly, for BLO under the assumption that the lower-level functions admit the typical strong convexity assumption, the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-07-10 Chris Junchi Li

Meta learning with multiple objectives can be formulated as a Multi-Objective Bi-Level optimization Problem (MOBLP) where the upper-level subproblem is to solve several possible conflicting targets for the meta learner. However, existing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-02-16 Feiyang Ye , Baijiong Lin , Zhixiong Yue , Pengxin Guo , Qiao Xiao , Yu Zhang

This paper introduces a novel double regularization scheme for bilevel optimization problems whose lower-level problem is composite and convex, but not necessarily strongly convex, in the lower-level variable. The analysis focuses on the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-06 Mattia Solla , Johannes O. Royset

We propose techniques for approximating bilevel optimization problems with non-smooth lower level problems that can have a non-unique solution. To this end, we substitute the expression of a minimizer of the lower level minimization problem…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2016-04-27 Peter Ochs , René Ranftl , Thomas Brox , Thomas Pock

In this paper, we introduce a new functional point of view on bilevel optimization problems for machine learning, where the inner objective is minimized over a function space. These types of problems are most often solved by using methods…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-12-10 Ieva Petrulionyte , Julien Mairal , Michael Arbel

We consider bilevel optimization problems with general nonconvex lower-level objectives and show that the classical hyperfunction-based formulation is unsettled, since the global minimizer of the lower-level problem is generally…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-31 Xiaotian Jiang , Jiaxiang Li , Jiawen Bi , Mingyi Hong , Shuzhong Zhang

Stochastic gradient methods are scalable for solving large-scale optimization problems that involve empirical expectations of loss functions. Existing results mainly apply to optimization problems where the objectives are one- or two-level…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-01-15 Shuoguang Yang , Mengdi Wang , Ethan X. Fang

Bilevel optimization deals with nested problems in which a leader takes the first decision to minimize their objective function while accounting for a follower's best-response reaction. Constrained bilevel problems with integer variables…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-11-04 Justin Dumouchelle , Esther Julien , Jannis Kurtz , Elias B. Khalil

Bilevel optimization (BO) is widely applicable to many machine learning problems. Scaling BO, however, requires repeatedly computing hypergradients, which involves solving inverse Hessian-vector products (IHVPs). In practice, these…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-01 Disen Liao , Felix Dangel , Yaoliang Yu

Bilevel optimization has arisen as a powerful tool for solving a variety of machine learning problems. Two current popular bilevel optimizers AID-BiO and ITD-BiO naturally involve solving one or two sub-problems, and consequently, whether…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-02 Kaiyi Ji , Mingrui Liu , Yingbin Liang , Lei Ying