Related papers: On The Statistical Complexity of Offline Decision-…
The design of online algorithms has tended to focus on algorithms with worst-case guarantees, e.g., bounds on the competitive ratio. However, it is well-known that such algorithms are often overly pessimistic, performing sub-optimally on…
We analyze Decentralized Online Optimization algorithms using the Performance Estimation Problem approach which allows, to automatically compute exact worst-case performance of optimization algorithms. Our analysis shows that several…
In this paper we propose a general framework to characterize and solve the stochastic optimization problems with multiple objectives underlying many real world learning applications. We first propose a projection based algorithm which…
In these notes we will tackle the problem of finding optimal policies for Markov decision processes (MDPs) which are not fully known to us. Our intention is to slowly transition from an offline setting to an online (learning) setting.…
We consider the general (stochastic) contextual bandit problem under the realizability assumption, i.e., the expected reward, as a function of contexts and actions, belongs to a general function class $\mathcal{F}$. We design a fast and…
Motivated by online recommendation systems, we propose the problem of finding the optimal policy in multitask contextual bandits when a small fraction $\alpha < 1/2$ of tasks (users) are arbitrary and adversarial. The remaining fraction of…
In this paper, we present an online reinforcement learning algorithm for constrained Markov decision processes with a safety constraint. Despite the necessary attention of the scientific community, considering stochastic stopping time, the…
We study the success probability for a variant of the secretary problem, with noisy observations and multiple offline selection. Our formulation emulates, and is motivated by, problems involving noisy selection arising in the disciplines of…
For infinite action contextual bandits, smoothed regret and reduction to regression results in state-of-the-art online performance with computational cost independent of the action set: unfortunately, the resulting data exhaust does not…
Relative to the large literature on upper bounds on complexity of convex optimization, lesser attention has been paid to the fundamental hardness of these problems. Given the extensive use of convex optimization in machine learning and…
We introduce a novel theoretical framework for Return On Investment (ROI) maximization in repeated decision-making. Our setting is motivated by the use case of companies that regularly receive proposals for technological innovations and…
We consider the online stochastic matching problem proposed by Feldman et al. [FMMM09] as a model of display ad allocation. We are given a bipartite graph; one side of the graph corresponds to a fixed set of bins and the other side…
This article presents a short and concise description of stochastic approximation algorithms in reinforcement learning of Markov decision processes. The algorithms can also be used as a suboptimal method for partially observed Markov…
We introduce a general framework of stochastic online convex optimization to obtain fast-rate stochastic regret bounds. We prove that algorithms such as online newton steps and a scale-free 10 version of Bernstein online aggregation achieve…
We study the problem of offline learning in automated decision systems under the contextual bandits model. We are given logged historical data consisting of contexts, (randomized) actions, and (nonnegative) rewards. A common goal is to…
The problem of offline reinforcement learning focuses on learning a good policy from a log of environment interactions. Past efforts for developing algorithms in this area have revolved around introducing constraints to online reinforcement…
We present and prove properties of a new offline policy evaluator for an exploration learning setting which is superior to previous evaluators. In particular, it simultaneously and correctly incorporates techniques from importance…
The deployment of autonomous systems in safety-critical environments requires control policies that guarantee satisfaction of complex control specifications. These systems are commonly modeled as nonlinear discrete-time stochastic systems.…
Online-learning literature has focused on designing algorithms that ensure sub-linear growth of the cumulative long-term constraint violations. The drawback of this guarantee is that strictly feasible actions may cancel out constraint…
Calculating optimal policies is known to be computationally difficult for Markov decision processes (MDPs) with Borel state and action spaces. This paper studies finite-state approximations of discrete time Markov decision processes with…