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This letter studies distributed stochastic optimization over a peer-to-peer network when agents can query only zeroth-order function values. We propose ZOOM-PB, a coordinate-sampling distributed zeroth-order method equipped with a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-05-28 Shengjun Zhang , Tingyi Liu , Heng Zhang , Dong Xie

Computing reduced-order models using non-intrusive methods is particularly attractive for systems that are simulated using black-box solvers. However, obtaining accurate data-driven models can be challenging, especially if the underlying…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2024-01-03 Alberto Padovan , Blaine Vollmer , Daniel J. Bodony

This work considers stochastic optimization problems in which the objective function values can only be computed by a blackbox corrupted by some random noise following an unknown distribution. The proposed method is based on sequential…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-15 Charles Audet , Jean Bigeon , Romain Couderc , Michael Kokkolaras

Differentially private zeroth-order optimization methods have recently gained popularity in private fine tuning of machine learning models due to their reduced memory requirements. Current approaches for privatizing zeroth-order methods…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-07-10 Devansh Gupta , Meisam Razaviyayn , Vatsal Sharan

In this paper, we study zeroth-order algorithms for minimax optimization problems that are nonconvex in one variable and strongly-concave in the other variable. Such minimax optimization problems have attracted significant attention lately…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-04-06 Zhongruo Wang , Krishnakumar Balasubramanian , Shiqian Ma , Meisam Razaviyayn

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…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-12 Feihu Jin , Ying Tan

Distributed demand response is a typical distributed optimization problem that requires coordination among multiple agents to satisfy demand response requirements. However, existing distributed algorithms for this problem still face…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-11-02 Ruiyang Jin , Yujie Tang , Jie Song

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…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-07 Marco Rando , Cesare Molinari , Lorenzo Rosasco , Silvia Villa

Real-time constraint satisfaction for robots can be quite challenging due to the high computational complexity that arises when accounting for the system dynamics and environmental interactions, often requiring simplification in modelling…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-05-24 Pravin Dangol , Alireza Ramezani

Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization, learning from finite differences of function evaluations without backpropagation, has recently regained attention in deep learning due to its memory efficiency and applicability to gray- or black-box…

Existing reward alignment methods for diffusion and flow models rely on multi-step stochastic trajectories, making them difficult to extend to deterministic generators. A natural alternative is noise-space optimization, but existing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-14 Jeongsol Kim , Hongeun Kim , Jian Wang , Jong Chul Ye

The adaptive momentum method (AdaMM), which uses past gradients to update descent directions and learning rates simultaneously, has become one of the most popular first-order optimization methods for solving machine learning problems.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-10-17 Xiangyi Chen , Sijia Liu , Kaidi Xu , Xingguo Li , Xue Lin , Mingyi Hong , David Cox

Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization has become a popular technique for solving machine learning (ML) problems when first-order (FO) information is difficult or impossible to obtain. However, the scalability of ZO optimization remains an open…

We introduce a novel framework for decentralized projection-free optimization, extending projection-free methods to a broader class of upper-linearizable functions. Our approach leverages decentralized optimization techniques with the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-25 Yiyang Lu , Mohammad Pedramfar , Vaneet Aggarwal

Robust and stochastic optimal control problem (OCP) formulations allow a systematic treatment of uncertainty, but are typically associated with a high computational cost. The recently proposed zero-order robust optimization (zoRO) algorithm…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-09 Jonathan Frey , Yunfan Gao , Florian Messerer , Amon Lahr , Melanie Zeilinger , Moritz Diehl

Large language models (LLMs) excel across various tasks, but standard first-order (FO) fine-tuning demands considerable memory, significantly limiting real-world deployment. Recently, zeroth-order (ZO) optimization stood out as a promising…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-04 Qitao Tan , Jun Liu , Zheng Zhan , Caiwei Ding , Yanzhi Wang , Xiaolong Ma , Jaewoo Lee , Jin Lu , Geng Yuan

Classical optimization theory establishes that zeroth-order (ZO) algorithms suffer from a dimension-dependent slowdown, with convergence rates typically scaling with the model dimension compared to first-order methods. However, in contrast…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-06 Zhe Li , Bicheng Ying , Zidong Liu , Haibo Yang

Feedback optimization algorithms compute inputs to a system using real-time output measurements, which helps mitigate the effects of disturbances. However, existing work often models both system dynamics and computations in either discrete…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-03-23 Oscar Jed Chuy , Matthew Hale , Ricardo Sanfelice

Zeroth-order optimization (ZO) algorithms have been recently used to solve black-box or simulation-based learning and control problems, where the gradient of the objective function cannot be easily computed but can be approximated using the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-09-09 Yan Zhang , Yi Zhou , Kaiyi Ji , Michael M. Zavlanos

This paper presents a novel p-adaptive, high-order mesh-free framework for the accurate and efficient simulation of fluid flows in complex geometries. High-order differential operators are constructed locally for arbitrary node…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2025-11-27 Ruofeng Feng , Jack R. C. King , Steven J. Lind