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We consider the problem of minimizing a convex function that is evolving according to unknown and possibly stochastic dynamics, which may depend jointly on time and on the decision variable itself. Such problems abound in the machine…
We revisit the sample average approximation (SAA) approach for non-convex stochastic programming. We show that applying the SAA approach to problems with expected value equality constraints does not necessarily result in asymptotic…
This paper considers the problem of minimizing the time average of a controlled stochastic process subject to multiple time average constraints on other related processes. The probability distribution of the random events in the system is…
We consider stochastic optimization problems which use observed data to estimate essential characteristics of the random quantities involved. Sample average approximation (SAA) or empirical (plug-in) estimation are very popular ways to use…
This paper concerns a high-dimensional stochastic programming problem of minimizing a function of expected cost with a matrix argument. To this problem, one of the most widely applied solution paradigms is the sample average approximation…
Sample average approximation (SAA), a popular method for tractably solving stochastic optimization problems, enjoys strong asymptotic performance guarantees in settings with independent training samples. However, these guarantees are not…
In data-driven optimization, sample average approximation (SAA) is known to suffer from the so-called optimizer's curse that causes an over-optimistic evaluation of the solution performance. We argue that a special type of distributionallly…
In this paper, we study a class of stochastic optimization problems, referred to as the \emph{Conditional Stochastic Optimization} (CSO), in the form of $\min_{x \in \mathcal{X}} \EE_{\xi}f_\xi\Big({\EE_{\eta|\xi}[g_\eta(x,\xi)]}\Big)$,…
We propose a sampling-based trajectory optimization methodology for constrained problems. We extend recent works on stochastic search to deal with box control constraints,as well as nonlinear state constraints for discrete dynamical…
This paper addresses sampling-based trajectory optimization for risk-aware navigation under stochastic dynamics. Typically such approaches operate by computing $\tilde{N}$ perturbed rollouts around the nominal dynamics to estimate the…
In this paper, we investigate an optimal control problem with terminal stochastic linear complementarity constraints (SLCC), and its discrete approximation using the relaxation, the sample average approximation (SAA) and the implicit Euler…
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…
We apply the sample average approximation (SAA) method to risk-neutral optimization problems governed by nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) with random inputs. We analyze the consistency of the SAA optimal values and SAA…
We study a stochastic optimal control problem for jump-diffusion systems whose drift coefficient is piecewise Lipschitz continuous and exhibits threshold-induced discontinuities. Such dynamics naturally arise in applications with…
Stochastic and (distributionally) robust optimization problems often become computationally challenging as the number of scenarios or data points increases. Scenario reduction is therefore a key technique for improving tractability. We…
The classical Method of Successive Approximations (MSA) is an iterative method for solving stochastic control problems and is derived from Pontryagin's optimality principle. It is known that the MSA may fail to converge. Using careful…
This work is motivated by the challenges of applying the sample average approximation (SAA) method to multistage stochastic programming with an unknown continuous-state Markov process. While SAA is widely used in static and two-stage…
We present adaptive sequential SAA (sample average approximation) algorithms to solve large-scale two-stage stochastic linear programs. The iterative algorithm framework we propose is organized into \emph{outer} and \emph{inner} iterations…
This paper studies sample average approximation (SAA) in solving convex or strongly convex stochastic programming (SP) problems. In estimating SAA's sample efficiency, the state-of-the-art sample complexity bounds entail metric entropy…
Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) problems are increasingly seen as a viable method to train machine learning models for improved model generalization. These min-max formulations, however, are more difficult to solve. We therefore…