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In the Upper Degree-Constrained Partial Orientation problem we are given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$, together with two degree constraint functions $d^-,d^+ : V \to \mathbb{N}$. The goal is to orient as many edges as possible, in such a…
One of the key research interests in the area of Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is to identify tractable classes of constraints and develop efficient solutions for them. In this paper, we introduce generalized staircase (GS)…
Visual Place Recognition (VPR) is a scene-oriented image retrieval problem in computer vision in which re-ranking based on local features is commonly employed to improve performance. In robotics, VPR is also referred to as Loop Closure…
In this paper, we establish new convergence results for the quantized distributed gradient descent and suggest a novel strategy of choosing the stepsizes for the high-performance of the algorithm. Under the strongly convexity assumption on…
We propose a universal Graph Neural Network architecture which can be trained as an end-2-end search heuristic for any Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). Our architecture can be trained unsupervised with policy gradient descent to…
We propose randomized subspace gradient methods for high-dimensional constrained optimization. While there have been similarly purposed studies on unconstrained optimization problems, there have been few on constrained optimization problems…
The traditional way of tackling discrete optimization problems is by using local search on suitably defined cost or fitness landscapes. Such approaches are however limited by the slowing down that occurs when the local minima that are a…
The input to the stochastic orienteering problem consists of a budget $B$ and metric $(V,d)$ where each vertex $v$ has a job with deterministic reward and random processing time (drawn from a known distribution). The processing times are…
We develop a machine-learning framework to learn hyperparameter sequences for accelerated first-order methods (e.g., the step size and momentum sequences in accelerated gradient descent) to quickly solve parametric convex optimization…
Online minimization of an unknown convex function over the interval $[0,1]$ is considered under first-order stochastic bandit feedback, which returns a random realization of the gradient of the function at each query point. Without knowing…
We study the problem of episodic reinforcement learning in continuous state-action spaces with unknown rewards and transitions. Specifically, we consider the setting where the rewards and transitions are modeled using parametric bilinear…
Generative recommendation via autoregressive models has unified retrieval and ranking into a single conditional generation framework. However, fine-tuning these models with Reinforcement Learning (RL) often suffers from a fundamental…
In a network, a $k$-plex represents a subset of $n$ vertices where the degree of each vertex in the subnetwork induced by this subset is at least $n-k$. The maximum edge-weight $k$-plex partitioning problem (Max-EkPP) is to find the…
Constraint satisfaction problems have been studied in numerous fields with practical and theoretical interests. In recent years, major breakthroughs have been made in a study of counting constraint satisfaction problems (or #CSPs). In…
Conversion rate optimization means designing web interfaces such that more visitors perform a desired action (such as register or purchase) on the site. One promising approach, implemented in Sentient Ascend, is to optimize the design using…
Many discrete optimization problems are amenable to constrained shortest-path reformulations in an extended network space, a technique that has been key in convexification, bound strengthening, and search. In this paper, we propose a…
In this paper, we study a stochastic strongly convex optimization problem and propose three classes of variable sample-size stochastic first-order methods including the standard stochastic gradient descent method, its accelerated variant,…
The Promise Constraint Satisfaction Problem (PCSP for short) is a generalization of the well-studied Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). The PCSP has its roots in such classic problems as the Approximate Graph Coloring and the…
The Constraint-satisfaction problem (CSP) is fundamental in mathematics, physics, and theoretical computer science. Continuous local search (CLS) solvers, as recent advancements, can achieve highly competitive results on certain classes of…
We present a unified approach for constraint displacement problems in which a robot finds a feasible path by displacing constraints or obstacles. To this end, we propose a two stage process that returns locally optimal obstacle…