Related papers: DeepZero: Scaling up Zeroth-Order Optimization for…
Zeroth-order methods are extensively used in machine learning applications where gradients are infeasible or expensive to compute, such as black-box attacks, reinforcement learning, and language model fine-tuning. Existing optimization…
Continual learning requires new-task adaptation without damaging previously acquired capabilities. Recent forward-pass and zeroth-order (ZO) results show that low-query adaptation may retain better than first-order (FO) descent, but the…
We introduce the Z-Domain Neural Operator (ZNO), a causal neural operator whose layers are stable low-rank multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) rational filters parameterized directly in the $z$-plane. ZNO addresses a limitation of…
We consider the zeroth-order optimization problem in the huge-scale setting, where the dimension of the problem is so large that performing even basic vector operations on the decision variables is infeasible. In this paper, we propose a…
Bilevel optimization problems consist of minimizing a value function whose evaluation depends on the solution of an inner optimization problem. These problems are typically tackled using first-order methods that require computing the…
In this paper, we study the problem of constrained robust (min-max) optimization ina black-box setting, where the desired optimizer cannot access the gradients of the objective function but may query its values. We present a principled…
Brain-inspired neuromorphic computing with spiking neural networks (SNNs) is a promising energy-efficient computational approach. However, successfully training SNNs in a more biologically plausible and neuromorphic-hardware-friendly way is…
Optimization in machine learning, both theoretical and applied, is presently dominated by first-order gradient methods such as stochastic gradient descent. Second-order optimization methods, that involve second derivatives and/or second…
In this paper, we consider a distributed stochastic non-convex optimization problem, which is about minimizing a sum of $n$ local cost functions over a network with only zeroth-order information. A novel single-loop Decentralized…
Zeroth-order optimization (ZOO) is an important framework for stochastic optimization when gradients are unavailable or expensive to compute. A potential limitation of existing ZOO methods is the bias inherent in most gradient estimators…
Scaling deep neural network (DNN) training to more devices can reduce time-to-solution. However, it is impractical for users with limited computing resources. FOSI, as a hybrid order optimizer, converges faster than conventional optimizers…
As model sizes grow, finding efficient and cost-effective hyperparameter optimization (HPO) methods becomes increasingly crucial for deep learning pipelines. While multi-fidelity HPO (MF-HPO) trades off computational resources required for…
We propose a novel second-order optimization framework for training the emerging deep continuous-time models, specifically the Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (Neural ODEs). Since their training already involves expensive gradient…
Stochastic zeroth-order (SZO), or gradient-free, optimization allows to optimize arbitrary functions by relying only on function evaluations under parameter perturbations, however, the iteration complexity of SZO methods suffers a factor…
Modern machine learning algorithms usually involve tuning multiple (from one to thousands) hyperparameters which play a pivotal role in terms of model generalizability. Black-box optimization and gradient-based algorithms are two dominant…
In this work, we study optimization methods that leverage the linear minimization oracle (LMO) over a norm-ball. We propose a new stochastic family of algorithms that uses the LMO to adapt to the geometry of the problem and, perhaps…
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…
Rank-based zeroth-order (ZO) optimization -- which relies only on the ordering of function evaluations -- offers strong robustness to noise and monotone transformations, and underlies many successful algorithms such as CMA-ES, natural…
We propose RSO (random search optimization), a gradient free Markov Chain Monte Carlo search based approach for training deep neural networks. To this end, RSO adds a perturbation to a weight in a deep neural network and tests if it reduces…
Trained on large datasets, deep learning (DL) can accurately classify videos into hundreds of diverse classes. However, video data is expensive to annotate. Zero-shot learning (ZSL) proposes one solution to this problem. ZSL trains a model…