Related papers: Scalable Acceleration for Classification-Based Der…
In this paper, we propose a trajectory optimization for computing smooth collision free trajectories for nonholonomic curvature bounded vehicles among static and dynamic obstacles. One of the key novelties of our formulation is a hierarchal…
An open question in autonomous driving is how best to use simulation to validate the safety of autonomous vehicles. Existing techniques rely on simulated rollouts, which can be inefficient for finding rare failure events, while other…
In this work we consider unconstrained optimization problems. The objective function is known through a zeroth order stochastic oracle that gives an estimate of the true objective function. To solve these problems, we propose a…
In stochastic zeroth-order optimization, a problem of practical relevance is understanding how to fully exploit the local geometry of the underlying objective function. We consider a fundamental setting in which the objective function is…
Derivative-free optimization has become an important technique used in machine learning for optimizing black-box models. To conduct updates without explicitly computing gradient, most current approaches iteratively sample a random search…
Emerging applications of control, estimation, and machine learning, ranging from target tracking to decentralized model fitting, pose resource constraints that limit which of the available sensors, actuators, or data can be simultaneously…
Decision tree optimization is notoriously difficult from a computational perspective but essential for the field of interpretable machine learning. Despite efforts over the past 40 years, only recently have optimization breakthroughs been…
Optimization-based samplers such as randomize-then-optimize (RTO) [2] provide an efficient and parallellizable approach to solving large-scale Bayesian inverse problems. These methods solve randomly perturbed optimization problems to draw…
We present an efficient algorithm for model-free episodic reinforcement learning on large (potentially continuous) state-action spaces. Our algorithm is based on a novel $Q$-learning policy with adaptive data-driven discretization. The…
We focus on the problem of adversarial attacks against models on discrete sequential data in the black-box setting where the attacker aims to craft adversarial examples with limited query access to the victim model. Existing black-box…
Optimal designs are usually model-dependent and likely to be sub-optimal if the postulated model is not correctly specified. In practice, it is common that a researcher has a list of candidate models at hand and a design has to be found…
In this paper, we will provide an introduction to the derivative-free optimization algorithms which can be potentially applied to train deep learning models. Existing deep learning model training is mostly based on the back propagation…
In this paper, a novel derivative-free pattern search based algorithm for Black-box optimization is proposed over a simplex constrained parameter space. At each iteration, starting from the current solution, new possible set of solutions…
Pseudospectral analysis is fundamental for quantifying the sensitivity and transient behavior of nonnormal matrices, yet its computational cost scales cubically with dimension, rendering it prohibitive for large-scale systems. While…
We develop a method for policy architecture search and adaptation via gradient-free optimization which can learn to perform autonomous driving tasks. By learning from both demonstration and environmental reward we develop a model that can…
In classification problems, sampling bias between training data and testing data is critical to the ranking performance of classification scores. Such bias can be both unintentionally introduced by data collection and intentionally…
We study the problem of zero-order optimization of a strongly convex function. The goal is to find the minimizer of the function by a sequential exploration of its values, under measurement noise. We study the impact of higher order…
With the rising number of machine learning competitions, the world has witnessed an exciting race for the best algorithms. However, the involved data selection process may fundamentally suffer from evidence ambiguity and concept drift…
Derivative-Free Optimization (DFO) involves methods that rely solely on evaluations of the objective function. One of the earliest strategies for designing DFO methods is to adapt first-order methods by replacing gradients with…
The conditional gradient algorithm (also known as the Frank-Wolfe algorithm) has recently regained popularity in the machine learning community due to its projection-free property to solve constrained problems. Although many variants of the…