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Large language models have demonstrated exceptional capabilities across diverse tasks, but their fine-tuning demands significant memory, posing challenges for resource-constrained environments. Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization provides a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-18 Zhen Zhang , Yifan Yang , Kai Zhen , Nathan Susanj , Athanasios Mouchtaris , Siegfried Kunzmann , Zheng Zhang

We study the problem of distributed zero-order optimization for a class of strongly convex functions. They are formed by the average of local objectives, associated to different nodes in a prescribed network of connections. We propose a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-29 Arya Akhavan , Massimiliano Pontil , Alexandre B. Tsybakov

The increasing computational and memory demands in deep learning present significant challenges, especially in resource-constrained environments. We introduce a zero-order quantized optimization (ZOQO) method designed for training models…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-14 Noga Bar , Raja Giryes

In this paper, we utilize stochastic optimization to reduce the space complexity of convex composite optimization with a nuclear norm regularizer, where the variable is a matrix of size $m \times n$. By constructing a low-rank estimate of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2015-12-08 Lijun Zhang , Tianbao Yang , Rong Jin , Zhi-Hua Zhou

In this paper, we design and analyze a new zeroth-order online algorithm, namely, the zeroth-order online alternating direction method of multipliers (ZOO-ADMM), which enjoys dual advantages of being gradient-free operation and employing…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-02-20 Sijia Liu , Jie Chen , Pin-Yu Chen , Alfred O. Hero

Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization has gained attention as a memory-efficient alternative to first-order (FO) methods, particularly in settings where gradient computation is expensive or even impractical. Beyond its memory efficiency, in this…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-13 Wanhao Yu , Zheng Wang , Shuteng Niu , Sen Lin , Li Yang

In this study, we delve into an emerging optimization challenge involving a black-box objective function that can only be gauged via a ranking oracle-a situation frequently encountered in real-world scenarios, especially when the function…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-04-16 Zhiwei Tang , Dmitry Rybin , Tsung-Hui Chang

In this paper, we show how to transform any optimization problem that arises from fitting a machine learning model into one that (1) detects and removes contaminated data from the training set while (2) simultaneously fitting the trimmed…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2017-02-07 Aleksandr Aravkin , Damek Davis

In this paper, we present new stochastic methods for solving two important classes of nonconvex optimization problems. We first introduce a randomized accelerated proximal gradient (RapGrad) method for solving a class of nonconvex…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-08-20 Guanghui Lan , Yu Yang

Constrained second-order convex optimization algorithms are the method of choice when a high accuracy solution to a problem is needed, due to their local quadratic convergence. These algorithms require the solution of a constrained…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-06-13 Alejandro Carderera , Sebastian Pokutta

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is a widely-used approach to learn models that are robust against distribution shift. Compared with the standard optimization setting, the objective function in DRO is more difficult to optimize,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-27 Jikai Jin , Bohang Zhang , Haiyang Wang , Liwei Wang

In this paper, we develop new efficient projection-free algorithms for Online Convex Optimization (OCO). Online Gradient Descent (OGD) is an example of a classical OCO algorithm that guarantees the optimal $O(\sqrt{T})$ regret bound.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-24 Zakaria Mhammedi

The minimization of convex functions which are only available through partial and noisy information is a key methodological problem in many disciplines. In this paper we consider convex optimization with noisy zero-th order information,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2016-05-27 Francis Bach , Vianney Perchet

Zeroth-order optimization (ZO) typically relies on two-point feedback to estimate the unknown gradient of the objective function. Nevertheless, two-point feedback can not be used for online optimization of time-varying objective functions,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-12-04 Yan Zhang , Yi Zhou , Kaiyi Ji , Michael M. Zavlanos

Stochastic optimization algorithms with variance reduction have proven successful for minimizing large finite sums of functions. Unfortunately, these techniques are unable to deal with stochastic perturbations of input data, induced for…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2017-11-16 Alberto Bietti , Julien Mairal

Zeroth-order (ZO) methods are widely used when gradients are unavailable or prohibitively expensive, including black-box learning and memory-efficient fine-tuning of large models, yet their optimization dynamics in deep learning remain…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-17 Minhak Song , Liang Zhang , Bingcong Li , Niao He , Michael Muehlebach , Sewoong Oh

In this paper we propose a variant of the random coordinate descent method for solving linearly constrained convex optimization problems with composite objective functions. If the smooth part of the objective function has Lipschitz…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2013-02-14 Ion Necoara , Andrei Patrascu

Many modern large-scale machine learning problems benefit from decentralized and stochastic optimization. Recent works have shown that utilizing both decentralized computing and local stochastic gradient estimates can outperform…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-11-06 Haoran Sun , Songtao Lu , Mingyi Hong

We study (constrained) nonconvex (composite) optimization problems where the decision variables vector can be split into blocks of variables. Random block projection is a popular technique to handle this kind of problem for its remarkable…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-06-17 Zhan Yu , Daniel W. C. Ho

Large language models (LLMs) excel across various tasks, but standard first-order (FO) fine-tuning demands considerable memory, significantly limiting real-world deployment. Recently, zeroth-order (ZO) optimization stood out as a promising…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-04 Qitao Tan , Jun Liu , Zheng Zhan , Caiwei Ding , Yanzhi Wang , Xiaolong Ma , Jaewoo Lee , Jin Lu , Geng Yuan