Related papers: FUSE: First-Order and Second-Order Unified SynthEs…
We adopt a policy optimization viewpoint towards policy evaluation for robust Markov decision process with $\mathrm{s}$-rectangular ambiguity sets. The developed method, named first-order policy evaluation (FRPE), provides the first unified…
In this paper, we present a novel learning-based shared control framework. This framework deploys first-order Dynamical Systems (DS) as motion generators providing the desired reference motion, and a Variable Stiffness Dynamical Systems…
Stochastic first-order methods are standard for training large-scale machine learning models. Random behavior may cause a particular run of an algorithm to result in a highly suboptimal objective value, whereas theoretical guarantees are…
We introduce Multi-Iteration Stochastic Optimizers, a novel class of first-order stochastic methods that control the relative $L^2$ error using successive control variates along the iteration path. By exploiting correlations between…
Stochastic optimisation algorithms are the de facto standard for machine learning with large amounts of data. Handling only a subset of available data in each optimisation step dramatically reduces the per-iteration computational costs,…
We introduce a generic scheme for accelerating first-order optimization methods in the sense of Nesterov, which builds upon a new analysis of the accelerated proximal point algorithm. Our approach consists of minimizing a convex objective…
Balancing convergence speed, generalization capability, and computational efficiency remains a core challenge in deep learning optimization. First-order gradient descent methods, epitomized by stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and Adam,…
Policy gradient (PG) is widely used in reinforcement learning due to its scalability and good performance. In recent years, several variance-reduced PG methods have been proposed with a theoretical guarantee of converging to an approximate…
Optimization in machine learning, both theoretical and applied, is presently dominated by first-order gradient methods such as stochastic gradient descent. Second-order optimization methods, that involve second derivatives and/or second…
This work provides the first finite-time convergence guarantees for linearly constrained stochastic bilevel optimization using only first-order methods, requiring solely gradient information without any Hessian computations or second-order…
We derive a new high-order compact finite difference scheme for option pricing in stochastic volatility jump models, e.g. in Bates model. In such models the option price is determined as the solution of a partial integro-differential…
In this paper we consider stochastic composite convex optimization problems with the objective function satisfying a stochastic bounded gradient condition, with or without a quadratic functional growth property. These models include the…
In this paper we present FASE (Fast Asynchronous Systems Evaluation), a tool for evaluating worst-case efficiency of asynchronous systems. This tool implements some well-established results in the setting of a timed CCS-like process…
The size and complexity of software and hardware systems have significantly increased in the past years. As a result, it is harder to guarantee their correct behavior. One of the most successful methods for automated verification of…
Artificial intelligence has advanced rapidly through large neural networks trained on massive datasets using thousands of GPUs or TPUs. Such training can occupy entire data centers for weeks and requires enormous computational and energy…
Federated learning is a useful framework for centralized learning from distributed data under practical considerations of heterogeneity, asynchrony, and privacy. Federated architectures are frequently deployed in deep learning settings,…
In this paper, we study stochastic non-convex optimization with non-convex random functions. Recent studies on non-convex optimization revolve around establishing second-order convergence, i.e., converging to a nearly second-order optimal…
Stochastic optimization is fundamental to modern machine learning. Recent research has extended the study of stochastic first-order methods (SFOMs) from light-tailed to heavy-tailed noise, which frequently arises in practice, with clipping…
Stochastic optimization methods have become a class of popular optimization tools in machine learning. Especially, stochastic gradient descent (SGD) has been widely used for machine learning problems such as training neural networks due to…
A central challenge to using first-order methods for optimizing nonconvex problems is the presence of saddle points. First-order methods often get stuck at saddle points, greatly deteriorating their performance. Typically, to escape from…