Related papers: Geometry-Calibrated DRO: Combating Over-Pessimism …
The minimax sample complexity of group distributionally robust optimization (GDRO) has been determined up to a $\log(K)$ factor, where $K$ is the number of groups. In this work, we venture beyond the minimax perspective via a novel notion…
We give new results for problems in computational and statistical machine learning using tools from high-dimensional geometry and probability. We break up our treatment into two parts. In Part I, we focus on computational considerations in…
Reinforcement learning (RL) has proven remarkably effective at improving the accuracy of language models in verifiable and deterministic domains like mathematics. Here, we examine if current RL methods are also effective at optimizing…
We propose kernel distributionally robust optimization (Kernel DRO) using insights from the robust optimization theory and functional analysis. Our method uses reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS) to construct a wide range of convex…
Offline Reinforcement Learning (RL) promises the recovery of optimal policies from static datasets, yet it remains susceptible to the overestimation of out-of-distribution (OOD) actions, particularly in fractured and sparse data manifolds.…
We introduce the notion of Worst-Case Sensitivity, defined as the worst-case rate of increase in the expected cost of a Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) model when the size of the uncertainty set vanishes. We show that worst-case…
We study distributionally robust online learning, where a risk-averse learner updates decisions sequentially to guard against worst-case distributions drawn from a Wasserstein ambiguity set centered at past observations. While this paradigm…
Trustworthy machine learning aims at combating distributional uncertainties in training data distributions compared to population distributions. Typical treatment frameworks include the Bayesian approach, (min-max) distributionally robust…
Modern stochastic optimization pipelines increasingly rely on learned generative models to represent uncertainty, while downstream decisions are evaluated almost entirely through Monte Carlo scenarios. This shifts the operational object of…
A robust-to-dynamics optimization (RDO) problem is an optimization problem specified by two pieces of input: (i) a mathematical program (an objective function $f:\mathbb{R}^n\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ and a feasible set…
This manuscript introduces the idea of using Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) for the Counterfactual Risk Minimization (CRM) problem. Tapping into a rich existing literature, we show that DRO is a principled tool for…
The goal of this paper is to develop distributionally robust optimization (DRO) estimators, specifically for multidimensional Extreme Value Theory (EVT) statistics. EVT supports using semi-parametric models called max-stable distributions…
Empirical risk minimization (ERM) is known in practice to be non-robust to distributional shift where the training and the test distributions are different. A suite of approaches, such as importance weighting, and variants of…
Safety is a core challenge of autonomous robot motion planning, especially in the presence of dynamic and uncertain obstacles. Many recent results use learning and deep learning-based motion planners and prediction modules to predict…
Recently, there has been a growing interest in distributionally robust optimization (DRO) as a principled approach to data-driven decision making. In this paper, we consider a distributionally robust two-stage stochastic optimization…
Distributionally robust optimisation (DRO) minimises the worst-case expected loss over an ambiguity set that can capture distributional shifts in out-of-sample environments. While Huber (linear-vacuous) contamination is a classical…
We develop and analyze algorithms for distributionally robust optimization (DRO) of convex losses. In particular, we consider group-structured and bounded $f$-divergence uncertainty sets. Our approach relies on an accelerated method that…
Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is a powerful tool for decision making under uncertainty. It is particularly appealing because of its ability to leverage existing data. However, many practical problems call for decision-making…
Robust Optimization has traditionally taken a pessimistic, or worst-case viewpoint of uncertainty which is motivated by a desire to find sets of optimal policies that maintain feasibility under a variety of operating conditions. In this…
Submodular functions have applications throughout machine learning, but in many settings, we do not have direct access to the underlying function $f$. We focus on stochastic functions that are given as an expectation of functions over a…