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Lower-bound analyses for nonconvex strongly-concave minimax optimization problems have shown that stochastic first-order algorithms require at least $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^{-4})$ oracle complexity to find an $\varepsilon$-stationary…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-15 Haoyuan Cai , Sulaiman A. Alghunaim , Ali H. Sayed

This paper presents a new approach and algorithm for solving a class of constrained Bi-Level Optimization (BLO) problems in which the lower-level problem involves constraints coupling both upper-level and lower-level variables. Such…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-01-30 Wei Yao , Chengming Yu , Shangzhi Zeng , Jin Zhang

In this paper, we focus on the nonconvex-strongly-convex bilevel optimization problem (BLO). In this BLO, the objective function of the upper-level problem is nonconvex and possibly nonsmooth, and the lower-level problem is smooth and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-12-26 Xiaoyin Hu , Nachuan Xiao , Xin Liu , Kim-Chuan Toh

Bilevel optimization (BO) is useful for solving a variety of important machine learning problems including but not limited to hyperparameter optimization, meta-learning, continual learning, and reinforcement learning. Conventional BO…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-09-20 Mao Ye , Bo Liu , Stephen Wright , Peter Stone , Qiang Liu

In this work, we consider bilevel optimization when the lower-level problem is strongly convex. Recent works show that with a Hessian-vector product (HVP) oracle, one can provably find an $\epsilon$-stationary point within…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-26 Lesi Chen , Yaohua Ma , Jingzhao Zhang

This work focuses on addressing two major challenges in the context of large-scale nonconvex Bi-Level Optimization (BLO) problems, which are increasingly applied in machine learning due to their ability to model nested structures. These…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-05-17 Risheng Liu , Zhu Liu , Wei Yao , Shangzhi Zeng , Jin Zhang

When faced with multiple minima of an "inner-level" convex optimization problem, the convex bilevel optimization problem selects an optimal solution which also minimizes an auxiliary "outer-level" convex objective of interest. Bilevel…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-10-10 Khanh-Hung Giang-Tran , Nam Ho-Nguyen , Dabeen Lee

Bilevel optimization recently has received tremendous attention due to its great success in solving important machine learning problems like meta learning, reinforcement learning, and hyperparameter optimization. Extending single-agent…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-06-02 Xuxing Chen , Minhui Huang , Shiqian Ma , Krishnakumar Balasubramanian

Two-level stochastic optimization formulations have become instrumental in a number of machine learning contexts such as continual learning, neural architecture search, adversarial learning, and hyperparameter tuning. Practical stochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-08 Tommaso Giovannelli , Griffin Dean Kent , Luis Nunes Vicente

In this paper, we develop zeroth-order algorithms with provably (nearly) optimal sample complexity for stochastic bilevel optimization, where only noisy function evaluations are available. We propose two distinct algorithms: the first is…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-07 Alireza Aghasi , Jeongyeol Kwon , Saeed Ghadimi

In this paper, we study a class of stochastic bilevel optimization problems, also known as stochastic simple bilevel optimization, where we minimize a smooth stochastic objective function over the optimal solution set of another stochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-16 Jincheng Cao , Ruichen Jiang , Nazanin Abolfazli , Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani , Aryan Mokhtari

In this work, we study first-order algorithms for solving Bilevel Optimization (BO) where the objective functions are smooth but possibly nonconvex in both levels and the variables are restricted to closed convex sets. As a first step, we…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-02-13 Jeongyeol Kwon , Dohyun Kwon , Stephen Wright , Robert Nowak

Bi-level optimization problems, where one wishes to find the global minimizer of an upper-level objective function over the globally optimal solution set of a lower-level objective, arise in a variety of scenarios throughout science and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-05-13 Nicolás García Trillos , Sixu Li , Konstantin Riedl , Yuhua Zhu

This paper considers the simple bilevel optimization (SBO) problem, which minimizes a composite convex function over the optimal solution set of another composite convex minimization problem. We first show that this bilevel problem is…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-07-11 Rujun Jiang , Xu Shi , Weizheng Song , Jiulin Wang

In this paper, we focus on the nonconvex-nonconvex bilevel optimization problem (BLO), where both upper-level and lower-level objectives are nonconvex, with the upper-level problem potentially being nonsmooth. We develop a two-timescale…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-24 Nachuan Xiao , Xiaoyin Hu , Xin Liu , Kim-Chuan Toh

Bilevel optimization has been successfully applied to many important machine learning problems. Algorithms for solving bilevel optimization have been studied under various settings. In this paper, we study the nonconvex-strongly-convex…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-14 Xuxing Chen , Minhui Huang , Shiqian Ma

It is well known that bilevel optimization problems are hard to solve both in theory and practice. In this paper, we highlight a further computational difficulty when it comes to solving bilevel problems with continuous but nonconvex lower…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-05-04 Yasmine Beck , Daniel Bienstock , Martin Schmidt , Johannes Thürauf

Bilevel optimization is a fundamental tool in hierarchical decision-making and has been widely applied to machine learning tasks such as hyperparameter tuning, meta-learning, and continual learning. While significant progress has been made…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-25 Nazanin Abolfazli , Sina Sharifi , Mahyar Fazlyab , Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani

In this paper, we consider non-convex stochastic bilevel optimization (SBO) problems that have many applications in machine learning. Although numerous studies have proposed stochastic algorithms for solving these problems, they are limited…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-15 Zhishuai Guo , Quanqi Hu , Lijun Zhang , Tianbao Yang

This paper investigates a class of stochastic bilevel optimization problems where the upper-level function is nonconvex with potentially unbounded smoothness and the lower-level problem is strongly convex. These problems have significant…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-16 Xiaochuan Gong , Jie Hao , Mingrui Liu