Related papers: Escaping Local Minima Provably in Non-convex Matri…
We consider the optimization of pairwise objective functions, i.e., objective functions of the form $H(\mathbf{x}) = H(x_1,\ldots,x_N) = \sum_{1\leq i<j \leq N} H_{ij}(x_i,x_j)$ for $x_i$ in some continuous state spaces $\mathcal{X}_i$.…
Without randomization, escaping the saddle points of $f \colon \mathbb{R}^d \to \mathbb{R}$ requires at least $\Omega(d)$ pieces of information about $f$ (values, gradients, Hessian-vector products). With randomization, this can be reduced…
In this paper, we consider smooth convex optimization problems with simple constraints and inexactness in the oracle information such as value, partial or directional derivatives of the objective function. We introduce a unifying framework,…
We study the question of whether parallelization in the exploration of the feasible set can be used to speed up convex optimization, in the local oracle model of computation. We show that the answer is negative for both deterministic and…
We propose a generic framework based on a new stochastic variance-reduced gradient descent algorithm for accelerating nonconvex low-rank matrix recovery. Starting from an appropriate initial estimator, our proposed algorithm performs…
Moment-based distributionally robust optimization (DRO) provides an optimization framework to integrate statistical information with traditional optimization approaches. Under this framework, one assumes that the underlying joint…
Matrix sensing is the problem of reconstructing a low-rank matrix from a few linear measurements. In many applications such as collaborative filtering, the famous Netflix prize problem, and seismic data interpolation, there exists some…
We study randomized algorithms for constrained optimization, in abstract frameworks that include, in strictly increasing generality: convex programming; LP-type problems; violator spaces; and a setting we introduce, consistent spaces. Such…
Model instability and poor prediction of long-term behavior are common problems when modeling dynamical systems using nonlinear "black-box" techniques. Direct optimization of the long-term predictions, often called simulation error…
In this paper, we present novel randomized algorithms for solving saddle point problems whose dual feasible region is given by the direct product of many convex sets. Our algorithms can achieve an ${\cal O}(1/N)$ and ${\cal O}(1/N^2)$ rate…
This study aims to optimize the evaluation metric of multimodal multi-objective optimization problems using a Regionalized Metric Framework, which provides a certain boost to research in this field. Existing evaluation metrics usually use…
Optimal power flow (OPF) is an important problem in the operation of electric power systems. Due to the OPF problem's non-convexity, there may exist multiple local optima. Certifiably obtaining the global solution is important for certain…
This paper is concerned with numerically finding a global solution of constrained optimal control problems with many local minima. The focus is on the optimal decentralized control (ODC) problem, whose feasible set is recently shown to have…
Gradient-related first-order methods have become the workhorse of large-scale numerical optimization problems. Many of these problems involve nonconvex objective functions with multiple saddle points, which necessitates an understanding of…
A recent line of work has shown that an overparametrized neural network can perfectly fit the training data, an otherwise often intractable nonconvex optimization problem. For (fully-connected) shallow networks, in the best case scenario,…
In compressed sensing, the sensing matrix is assumed perfectly known. However, there exists perturbation in the sensing matrix in reality due to sensor offsets or noise disturbance. Directions-of-arrival (DoA) estimation with off-grid…
The orthogonal group synchronization problem, which aims to recover a set of $d \times d$ orthogonal matrices from their pairwise noisy products, plays a fundamental role in signal processing, computer vision, and network analysis. In…
Training large neural networks (NNs) requires optimizing high-dimensional data-dependent loss functions. The optimization landscape of these functions is often highly complex and textured, even fractal-like, with many spurious local minima,…
This paper presents a randomized algorithm for computing the near-optimal low-rank dynamic mode decomposition (DMD). Randomized algorithms are emerging techniques to compute low-rank matrix approximations at a fraction of the cost of…
Similarity matrix serves as a fundamental tool at the core of numerous downstream machine-learning tasks. However, missing data is inevitable and often results in an inaccurate similarity matrix. To address this issue, Similarity Matrix…