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We propose a flexible scenario-based regularized Sample Average Approximation (SBR-SAA) framework for stochastic optimization. This work is motivated by challenges in standard Wasserstein Distributionally Robust Optimization (WDRO), where…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-11-21 Diego Fonseca , Mauricio Junca

The ranking and selection problem is a popular framework in the simulation literature for studying optimal information collection. We study a version of this problem in which the simulation output for each design is normally distributed…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-03 Jianzhong Du , Ilya O. Ryzhov , Siyang Gao

We study a linear contextual optimization problem where a decision maker has access to historical data and contextual features to learn a cost prediction model aimed at minimizing decision error. We adopt the predict-then-optimize framework…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-09 Omar Bennouna , Jiawei Zhang , Saurabh Amin , Asuman Ozdaglar

Stochastic programming is often challenged by epistemic uncertainty, where critical probability distributions are poorly characterized or unknown due to a lack of data. To address this, we pioneer a novel framework for stochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-19 Shixin Liu , Ming Gao , Jian Hu

In this paper, we consider contextual stochastic optimization problems under endogenous uncertainty, where decisions affect the underlying distributions. To implement such decisions in practice, it is crucial to ensure that their outcomes…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-16 Jasone Ramírez-Ayerbe , Emma Frejinger

We introduce a unified framework for contextual and causal Bayesian optimisation, which aims to design intervention policies maximising the expectation of a target variable. Our approach leverages both observed contextual information and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-04 Vahan Arsenyan , Antoine Grosnit , Haitham Bou-Ammar , Arnak Dalalyan

We study an optimization-based approach to construct statistically accurate confidence intervals for simulation performance measures under nonparametric input uncertainty. This approach computes confidence bounds from simulation runs driven…

Methodology · Statistics 2019-02-14 Henry Lam , Huajie Qian

It is well understood that Bayesian decision theory and average case analysis are essentially identical. However, if one is interested in performing uncertainty quantification for a numerical task, it can be argued that standard approaches…

Methodology · Statistics 2020-07-16 Chris. J. Oates , Jon Cockayne , Dennis Prangle , T. J. Sullivan , Mark Girolami

In this paper, we study a class of stochastic optimization problems, referred to as the \emph{Conditional Stochastic Optimization} (CSO), in the form of $\min_{x \in \mathcal{X}} \EE_{\xi}f_\xi\Big({\EE_{\eta|\xi}[g_\eta(x,\xi)]}\Big)$,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-21 Yifan Hu , Xin Chen , Niao He

During recent years the interest of optimization and machine learning communities in high-probability convergence of stochastic optimization methods has been growing. One of the main reasons for this is that high-probability complexity…

In stochastic simulation, input uncertainty refers to the output variability arising from the statistical noise in specifying the input models. This uncertainty can be measured by a variance contribution in the output, which, in the…

Methodology · Statistics 2021-05-20 Henry Lam , Huajie Qian

Existing approaches of prescriptive analytics -- where inputs of an optimization model can be predicted by leveraging covariates in a machine learning model -- often attempt to optimize the mean value of an uncertain objective. However,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-05 Dimitris Bertsimas , Benjamin Boucher

We study the unconstrained minimization of a smooth and strongly convex population loss function under a stochastic oracle that introduces both additive and multiplicative noise; this is a canonical and widely-studied setting that arises…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-27 Liwei Jiang , Ashwin Pananjady

We consider generic stochastic optimization problems in the presence of side information which enables a more insightful decision. The side information constitutes observable exogenous covariates that alter the conditional probability…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-10-22 Prateek R. Srivastava , Yijie Wang , Grani A. Hanasusanto , Chin Pang Ho

Sample average approximation (SAA) replaces an intractable expected objective by an empirical average and is a basic device of modern stochastic optimization. We develop a rate theory for optimal values and empirical…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-29 Hien Duy Nguyen , Jacob Westerhout , Xin Guo

Bayesian optimization is a class of global optimization techniques. In Bayesian optimization, the underlying objective function is modeled as a realization of a Gaussian process. Although the Gaussian process assumption implies a random…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2023-05-08 Rui Tuo , Wenjia Wang

Estimation frameworks for statistical inference are preferred to hypothesis testing when quantifying uncertainty and precise estimation are more valuable than binary decisions about statistical significance. Study design for…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-10-29 Luke Hagar , Nathaniel T. Stevens

Optimization under uncertainty deals with the problem of optimizing stochastic cost functions given some partial information on their inputs. These problems are extremely difficult to solve and yet pervade all areas of technological and…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-03-13 Fabrizio Altarelli , Alfredo Braunstein , Abolfazl Ramezanpour , Riccardo Zecchina

We explore generalizations of some integrated learning and optimization frameworks for data-driven contextual stochastic optimization that can adapt to heteroscedasticity. We identify conditions on the stochastic program, data generation…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-01-11 Rohit Kannan , Güzin Bayraksan , James Luedtke

Chance constraints are frequently used to limit the probability of constraint violations in real-world optimization problems where the constraints involve stochastic components. We study chance-constrained submodular optimization problems,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-09-27 Xiankun Yan , Anh Viet Do , Feng Shi , Xiaoyu Qin , Frank Neumann