Related papers: First-order SDSOS-convex semi-algebraic optimizati…
The smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) and the minimax concave penalty (MCP) penalized regression models are two important and widely used nonconvex sparse learning tools that can handle variable selection and parameter estimation…
In this paper, we propose a framework based on sum-of-squares programming to design iterative first-order optimization algorithms for smooth and strongly convex problems. Our starting point is to develop a polynomial matrix inequality as a…
We introduce a new convex optimization problem, termed quadratic decomposable submodular function minimization. The problem is closely related to decomposable submodular function minimization and arises in many learning on graphs and…
Composite convex optimization problems which include both a nonsmooth term and a low-rank promoting term have important applications in machine learning and signal processing, such as when one wishes to recover an unknown matrix that is…
We propose a first order algorithm, a modified version of FISTA, to solve an optimization problem with an objective function that is a sum of a possibly nonconvex function, with Lipschitz continuous gradient, and a convex function which can…
In this paper, we propose two novel non-stationary first-order primal-dual algorithms to solve nonsmooth composite convex optimization problems. Unlike existing primal-dual schemes where the parameters are often fixed, our methods use…
This work proposes a framework, embedded within the Performance Estimation framework (PEP), for obtaining worst-case performance guarantees on stochastic first-order methods. Given a first-order method, a function class, and a noise model…
In this paper, by improving the variable-splitting approach, we propose a new semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation for the nonconvex quadratic optimization problem over the $\ell_1$ unit ball (QPL1). It dominates the state-of-the-art…
This paper considers the problem of smoothing convex functions and sets, seeking the nearest smooth convex function or set to a given one. For convex cones and sublinear functions, a full characterization of the set of all optimal…
This paper introduces a smoothed proximal Lagrangian method for minimizing a nonconvex smooth function over a convex domain with additional explicit convex nonlinear constraints. Two key features are 1) the proposed method is single-looped,…
A very simple first-order algorithm is proposed for solving nonlinear optimization problems with deterministic nonlinear equality constraints. This algorithm adaptively selects steps in the plane tangent to the constraints or steps that…
This paper defines a convertible nonconvex function(CN function for short) and a weak (strong) uniform (decomposable, exact) CN function, proves the optimization conditions for their global solutions and proposes algorithms for solving the…
This paper focus on the minimization of a possibly nonsmooth objective function over the Stiefel manifold. The existing approaches either lack efficiency or can only tackle prox-friendly objective functions. We propose a constraint…
We consider in this paper a class of composite optimization problems whose objective function is given by the summation of a general smooth and nonsmooth component, together with a relatively simple nonsmooth term. We present a new class of…
We study the problem of zero-order optimization of a strongly convex function. The goal is to find the minimizer of the function by a sequential exploration of its values, under measurement noise. We study the impact of higher order…
Spline functions are smooth piecewise polynomials widely used for interpolation and smoothing, and nonnegative spline smoothing is also studied for nonnegative data. Previous research used sufficient conditions for the nonnegativity of…
This paper considers stochastic first-order algorithms for convex-concave minimax problems of the form $\min_{\bf x}\max_{\bf y}f(\bf x, \bf y)$, where $f$ can be presented by the average of $n$ individual components which are $L$-average…
We introduce the concept of sos-convex Lyapunov functions for stability analysis of both linear and nonlinear difference inclusions (also known as discrete-time switched systems). These are polynomial Lyapunov functions that have an…
While first-order methods are popular for solving optimization problems that arise in large-scale deep learning problems, they come with some acute deficiencies. To diminish such shortcomings, there has been recent interest in applying…
This technical note studies a class of distributed nonsmooth convex consensus optimization problem. The cost function is a summation of local cost functions which are convex but nonsmooth. Each of the local cost functions consists of a…