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It is well known that it is challenging to train deep neural networks and recurrent neural networks for tasks that exhibit long term dependencies. The vanishing or exploding gradient problem is a well known issue associated with these…
This paper deals with the problem of finding the globally optimal subset of h elements from a larger set of n elements in d space dimensions so as to minimize a quadratic criterion, with an special emphasis on applications to computing the…
This paper addresses the problem of Unbalanced Optimal Transport (UOT) in which the marginal conditions are relaxed (using weighted penalties in lieu of equality) and no additional regularization is enforced on the OT plan. In this context,…
In this paper, we consider a finite-dimensional optimization problem minimizing a continuous objective on a compact domain subject to a multi-dimensional constraint function. For the latter, we assume the availability of a global Lipschitz…
In two-phase image segmentation, convex relaxation has allowed global minimisers to be computed for a variety of data fitting terms. Many efficient approaches exist to compute a solution quickly. However, we consider whether the nature of…
A standard quadratic program is an optimization problem that consists of minimizing a (nonconvex) quadratic form over the unit simplex. We focus on reformulating a standard quadratic program as a mixed integer linear programming problem. We…
The topology optimization community has regularly employed nonlinear programming (NLP) algorithms from the operations research community. However, these algorithms are implemented in the real vector space $\mathbb{R}^n$ instead of the…
Tackling simulation optimization problems with non-convex objective functions remains a fundamental challenge in operations research. In this paper, we propose a class of random search algorithms, called Regular Tree Search, which…
Many practitioners who use the EM algorithm complain that it is sometimes slow. When does this happen, and what can be done about it? In this paper, we study the general class of bound optimization algorithms - including…
Decentralized optimization strategies are helpful for various applications, from networked estimation to distributed machine learning. This paper studies finite-sum minimization problems described over a network of nodes and proposes a…
We study the roots of algorithmic progress in deep policy gradient algorithms through a case study on two popular algorithms: Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) and Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO). Specifically, we investigate the…
Bi-level optimization has achieved considerable success in contemporary machine learning applications, especially for given proper hyperparameters. However, due to the two-level optimization structure, commonly, researchers focus on two…
The most important ingredient for solving mixed-integer nonlinear programs (MINLPs) to global epsilon-optimality with spatial branch and bound is a tight, computationally tractable relaxation. Due to both theoretical and practical…
We consider the problem of minimizing a sum of non-convex functions over a compact domain, subject to linear inequality and equality constraints. Approximate solutions can be found by solving a convexified version of the problem, in which…
Mastering a skill generally relies on both hands-on experience from doers and insightful, high-level guidance by mentors. Will this strategy also work well for solving complex non-convex optimization problems? Here, a common gradient-based…
Regularization and interior point approaches offer valuable perspectives to address constrained nonlinear optimization problems in view of control applications. This paper discusses the interactions between these techniques and proposes an…
Inference problems in graphical models are often approximated by casting them as constrained optimization problems. Message passing algorithms, such as belief propagation, have previously been suggested as methods for solving these…
The success of deep neural networks is in part due to the use of normalization layers. Normalization layers like Batch Normalization, Layer Normalization and Weight Normalization are ubiquitous in practice, as they improve generalization…
Designing and analyzing model-based RL (MBRL) algorithms with guaranteed monotonic improvement has been challenging, mainly due to the interdependence between policy optimization and model learning. Existing discrepancy bounds generally…
Adversarial training is extensively utilized to improve the adversarial robustness of deep neural networks. Yet, mitigating the degradation of standard generalization performance in adversarial-trained models remains an open problem. This…