Related papers: Sample Complexity of Data-driven Multistage Stocha…

Estimating the probabilities of rare failure events is a key challenge in the reliability analysis of physical systems. Subset simulation (SS) is a very popular adaptive Monte Carlo method for this problem. In SS, the small failure…

Motivated by their broad applications in reinforcement learning, we study the linear two-time-scale stochastic approximation, an iterative method using two different step sizes for finding the solutions of a system of two equations. Our…

Markov chain Monte Carlo is a class of algorithms for drawing Markovian samples from high-dimensional target densities to approximate the numerical integration associated with computing statistical expectation, especially in Bayesian…

In this paper, we propose a stochastic optimization method that adaptively controls the sample size used in the computation of gradient approximations. Unlike other variance reduction techniques that either require additional storage or the…

Bayesian Decision Trees (DTs) are generally considered a more advanced and accurate model than a regular Decision Tree (DT) because they can handle complex and uncertain data. Existing work on Bayesian DTs uses Markov Chain Monte Carlo…

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…

Generalized linear mixed models are useful in studying hierarchical data with possibly non-Gaussian responses. However, the intractability of likelihood functions poses challenges for estimation. We develop a new method suitable for this…

In stochastic optimisation, the large number of scenarios required to faithfully represent the underlying uncertainty is often a barrier to finding efficient numerical solutions. This motivates the scenario reduction problem: by find a…

We consider the problem of optimally controlling stochastic, Markovian systems subject to joint chance constraints over a finite-time horizon. For such problems, standard Dynamic Programming is inapplicable due to the time correlation of…

Consider the problem of minimizing the expected value of a (possibly nonconvex) cost function parameterized by a random (vector) variable, when the expectation cannot be computed accurately (e.g., because the statistics of the random…

Despite the recent growth of theoretical studies and empirical successes of neural networks, gradient backpropagation is still the most widely used algorithm for training such networks. On the one hand, we have deterministic or full…

Sparse residual tree (SRT) is an adaptive exploration method for multivariate scattered data approximation. It leads to sparse and stable approximations in areas where the data is sufficient or redundant, and points out the possible local…

We study the so-called two-time-scale stochastic approximation, a simulation-based approach for finding the roots of two coupled nonlinear operators. Our focus is to characterize its finite-time performance in a Markov setting, which often…

This paper presents a finite time convergence analysis for a decentralized stochastic approximation (SA) scheme. The scheme generalizes several algorithms for decentralized machine learning and multi-agent reinforcement learning. Our proof…

The stochastic growth-fragmentation model describes the temporal evolution of a structured cell population through a discrete-time and continuous-state Markov chain. The simulations of this stochastic process and its invariant measure are…

Automated agent workflows can enhance the problem-solving ability of large language models (LLMs), but common search strategies rely on stochastic exploration and often traverse implausible branches. This occurs because current pipelines…

Random instances of constraint satisfaction problems such as k-SAT provide challenging benchmarks. If there are m constraints over n variables there is typically a large range of densities r=m/n where solutions are known to exist with…

Sample average approximation--based stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) and model predictive control (MPC) are two different methods for approaching multistage stochastic optimization. In this paper we investigate the conditions under…

Stochastic forecasting is critical for efficient decision-making in uncertain systems, such as energy markets and finance, where estimating the full distribution of future scenarios is essential. We propose Diffusion Scenario Tree (DST), a…

Designing controllers for systems affected by model uncertainty can prove to be a challenge, especially when seeking the optimal compromise between the conflicting goals of identification and control. This trade-off is explicitly taken into…