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Motivated by their broad applications in reinforcement learning, we study the linear two-time-scale stochastic approximation, an iterative method using two different step sizes for finding the solutions of a system of two equations. Our…
We consider (stochastic) convex-concave saddle point (SP) problems with high-dimensional decision variables, arising in various applications including machine learning problems. To contend with the challenges in computing full gradients, we…
Conventional statistical wisdom established a well-understood relationship between model complexity and prediction error, typically presented as a U-shaped curve reflecting a transition between under- and overfitting regimes. However,…
Many discrete optimization problems are amenable to constrained shortest-path reformulations in an extended network space, a technique that has been key in convexification, bound strengthening, and search. In this paper, we propose a…
We study a cutting-plane method for semidefinite optimization problems (SDOs), and supply a proof of the method's convergence, under a boundedness assumption. By relating the method's rate of convergence to an initial outer approximation's…
We propose a new decomposition framework for continuous nonlinear constrained two-stage optimization, where both first- and second-stage problems can be nonconvex. A smoothing technique based on an interior-point formulation renders the…
This paper addresses two central problems for probabilistic processing models: parameter estimation from incomplete data and efficient retrieval of most probable analyses. These questions have been answered satisfactorily only for…
Factor-revealing linear programs (LPs) and policy-revealing LPs arise in various contexts of algorithm design and analysis. They are commonly used techniques for analyzing the performance of approximation and online algorithms, especially…
Gradient Descent (GD) and Conjugate Gradient (CG) methods are among the most effective iterative algorithms for solving unconstrained optimization problems, particularly in machine learning and statistical modeling, where they are employed…
We consider the problem of estimating the parameters of a Gaussian or binary distribution in such a way that the resulting undirected graphical model is sparse. Our approach is to solve a maximum likelihood problem with an added l_1-norm…
Uncertainty quantification for deep learning is a challenging open problem. Bayesian statistics offer a mathematically grounded framework to reason about uncertainties; however, approximate posteriors for modern neural networks still…
A common approach to statistical learning with big-data is to randomly split it among $m$ machines and learn the parameter of interest by averaging the $m$ individual estimates. In this paper, focusing on empirical risk minimization, or…
Suppose we are given an $n$-dimensional order-3 symmetric tensor $T \in (\mathbb{R}^n)^{\otimes 3}$ that is the sum of $r$ random rank-1 terms. The problem of recovering the rank-1 components is possible in principle when $r \lesssim n^2$…
Probabilistic programming systems enable users to encode model structure and naturally reason about uncertainties, which can be leveraged towards improved Bayesian optimization (BO) methods. Here we present a probabilistic program embedding…
ADAGB2, a generalization of the Adagrad algorithm for stochastic optimization is introduced, which is also applicable to bound-constrained problems and capable of using second-order information when available. It is shown that, given…
Probabilistic inference is fundamentally hard, yet many tasks require optimization on top of inference, which is even harder. We present a new optimization-via-compilation strategy to scalably solve a certain class of such problems. In…
Embedding deep neural networks (NNs) into mixed-integer programs (MIPs) is attractive for decision making with learned constraints, yet state-of-the-art monolithic linearisations blow up in size and quickly become intractable. In this…
A number of problems in relational Artificial Intelligence can be viewed as Stochastic Constraint Optimization Problems (SCOPs). These are constraint optimization problems that involve objectives or constraints with a stochastic component.…
Distributions on integers are ubiquitous in probabilistic modeling but remain challenging for many of today's probabilistic programming languages (PPLs). The core challenge comes from discrete structure: many of today's PPL inference…
Mathematical solvers use parametrized Optimization Problems (OPs) as inputs to yield optimal decisions. In many real-world settings, some of these parameters are unknown or uncertain. Recent research focuses on predicting the value of these…