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We prove the exact worst-case convergence rate of gradient descent for smooth strongly convex optimization, with respect to the performance criterion $\Vert \nabla f(x_N)\Vert^2/(f(x_0)-f_*)$. The proof differs from the previous one by…
In this paper, we establish the convergence of the stochastic Heavy Ball (SHB) algorithm under more general conditions than in the current literature. Specifically, (i) The stochastic gradient is permitted to be biased, and also, to have…
Stochastic Gradient (SG) is the defacto iterative technique to solve stochastic optimization (SO) problems with a smooth (non-convex) objective $f$ and a stochastic first-order oracle. SG's attractiveness is due in part to its simplicity of…
This paper addresses a distributed convex optimization problem with a class of coupled constraints, which arise in a multi-agent system composed of multiple communities modeled by cliques. First, we propose a fully distributed…
Preconditioning is a crucial operation in gradient-based numerical optimisation. It helps decrease the local condition number of a function by appropriately transforming its gradient. For a convex function, where the gradient can be…
In this paper we propose stochastic gradient-free methods and accelerated methods with momentum for solving stochastic optimization problems. All these methods rely on stochastic directions rather than stochastic gradients. We analyze the…
This paper introduces a new method for minimizing matrix-smooth non-convex objectives through the use of novel Compressed Gradient Descent (CGD) algorithms enhanced with a matrix-valued stepsize. The proposed algorithms are theoretically…
Many machine learning and optimization algorithms are built upon the framework of stochastic approximation (SA), for which the selection of step-size (or learning rate) $\{\alpha_n\}$ is crucial for success. An essential condition for…
Scalable algorithms of posterior approximation allow Bayesian nonparametrics such as Dirichlet process mixture to scale up to larger dataset at fractional cost. Recent algorithms, notably the stochastic variational inference performs local…
This paper studies the Nesterov-Spokoiny Acceleration (NSA), a variant of the accelerated gradient method by Nesterov and Spokoiny. For smooth convex optimization, NSA achieves a strict $o(1/k^2)$ convergence rate in function value and an…
The vast majority of convergence rates analysis for stochastic gradient methods in the literature focus on convergence in expectation, whereas trajectory-wise almost sure convergence is clearly important to ensure that any instantiation of…
A set of accelerated first order algorithms with memory are proposed for minimising strongly convex functions. The algorithms are differentiated by their use of the iterate history for the gradient step. The increased convergence rate of…
First-order methods with momentum such as Nesterov's fast gradient method are very useful for convex optimization problems, but can exhibit undesirable oscillations yielding slow convergence rates for some applications. An adaptive…
In practical applications of iterative first-order optimization, the learning rate schedule remains notoriously difficult to understand and expensive to tune. We demonstrate the presence of these subtleties even in the innocuous case when…
This work considers the effect of averaging, and more generally extrapolation, of the iterates of gradient descent in smooth convex optimization. After running the method, rather than reporting the final iterate, one can report either a…
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…
We analyze (stochastic) gradient descent (SGD) with delayed updates on smooth quasi-convex and non-convex functions and derive concise, non-asymptotic, convergence rates. We show that the rate of convergence in all cases consists of two…
Following the same routine as [SSJ20], we continue to present the theoretical analysis for stochastic gradient descent with momentum (SGD with momentum) in this paper. Differently, for SGD with momentum, we demonstrate it is the two…
We propose a first-order method for stochastic strongly convex optimization that attains $O(1/n)$ rate of convergence, analysis show that the proposed method is simple, easily to implement, and in worst case, asymptotically four times…
Distributed nonconvex optimization problems underlie many applications in learning and autonomy, and such problems commonly face asynchrony in agents' computations and communications. When delays in these operations are bounded, they are…