Related papers: A new Gradient TD Algorithm with only One Step-siz…
In this paper, we develop a unified convergence analysis framework for the Accelerated Smoothed GAp ReDuction algorithm (ASGARD) introduced in [20, Tran-Dinh et al, 2015] Unlike[20], the new analysis covers three settings in a single…
We study the classical optimization problem $\min_{x \in \mathbb{R}^d} f(x)$ and analyze the gradient descent (GD) method in both nonconvex and convex settings. It is well-known that, under the $L$-smoothness assumption ($\|\nabla^2 f(x)\|…
Existing analysis of Local (Stochastic) Gradient Descent for heterogeneous objectives requires stepsizes $\eta \leq 1/K$ where $K$ is the communication interval, which ensures monotonic decrease of the objective. In contrast, we analyze…
In distributed training of deep neural networks, people usually run Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) or its variants on each machine and communicate with other machines periodically. However, SGD might converge slowly in training some deep…
In this paper, we propose a new, simplified high probability analysis of AdaGrad for smooth, non-convex problems. More specifically, we focus on a particular accelerated gradient (AGD) template (Lan, 2020), through which we recover the…
We address the problem of finding the optimal policy of a constrained Markov decision process (CMDP) using a gradient descent-based algorithm. Previous results have shown that a primal-dual approach can achieve an $\mathcal{O}(1/\sqrt{T})$…
Temporal difference (TD) learning with linear function approximation (linear TD) is a classic and powerful prediction algorithm in reinforcement learning. While it is well-understood that linear TD converges almost surely to a unique point,…
Gradient clipping is a fundamental tool in Deep Learning, improving the high-probability convergence of stochastic first-order methods like SGD, AdaGrad, and Adam under heavy-tailed noise, which is common in training large language models.…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) performed in an asynchronous manner plays a crucial role in training large-scale machine learning models. However, the generalization performance of asynchronous delayed SGD, which is an essential metric…
Understanding the convergence performance of asynchronous stochastic gradient descent method (Async-SGD) has received increasing attention in recent years due to their foundational role in machine learning. To date, however, most of the…
Temporal difference (TD) learning is a policy evaluation in reinforcement learning whose performance can be enhanced by variance reduction methods. Recently, multiple works have sought to fuse TD learning with Stochastic Variance Reduced…
Distributed parallel stochastic gradient descent algorithms are workhorses for large scale machine learning tasks. Among them, local stochastic gradient descent (Local SGD) has attracted significant attention due to its low communication…
Recent results in non-convex stochastic optimization demonstrate the convergence of popular adaptive algorithms (e.g., AdaGrad) under the $(L_0, L_1)$-smoothness condition, but the rate of convergence is a higher-order polynomial in terms…
The decentralized gradient descent (DGD) algorithm, and its sibling, diffusion, are workhorses in decentralized machine learning, distributed inference and estimation, and multi-agent coordination. We propose a novel, principled framework…
We study the convergence of the last iterate (i.e., the $(N+1)$-th iterate) of the AdaGrad method. Although AdaGrad -- an adaptive subgradient method -- underpins a wide class of algorithms, most existing convergence analyses focus on…
Forward gradient descent (FGD) has been proposed as a biologically more plausible alternative of gradient descent as it can be computed without backward pass. Considering the linear model with $d$ parameters, previous work has found that…
Block coordinate descent is a powerful algorithmic template suitable for big data optimization. This template admits a lot of variants including block gradient descent (BGD), which performs gradient descent on a selected block of variables,…
The performance of gradient-based optimization methods, such as standard gradient descent (GD), greatly depends on the choice of learning rate. However, it can require a non-trivial amount of user tuning effort to select an appropriate…
For SGD based distributed stochastic optimization, computation complexity, measured by the convergence rate in terms of the number of stochastic gradient calls, and communication complexity, measured by the number of inter-node…
In this work, we propose new adaptive step size strategies that improve several stochastic gradient methods. Our first method (StoPS) is based on the classical Polyak step size (Polyak, 1987) and is an extension of the recent development of…