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A more general formulation of the linear bandit problem is considered to allow for dependencies over time. Specifically, it is assumed that there exists an unknown $\mathbb{R}^d$-valued stationary $\varphi$-mixing sequence of parameters…
This work proposes a procedure for designing algorithms for specific adaptive data collection tasks like active learning and pure-exploration multi-armed bandits. Unlike the design of traditional adaptive algorithms that rely on…
Mixed-integer programming (MIP) is a powerful paradigm for modeling and solving various important combinatorial optimization problems. Recently, learning-based approaches have shown a potential to speed up MIP solving via offline training…
We study high-dimensional multi-armed contextual bandits with batched feedback where the $T$ steps of online interactions are divided into $L$ batches. In specific, each batch collects data according to a policy that depends on previous…
Recent work has demonstrated the promise of orchestrating large language models (LLMs) within evolutionary and agentic optimization systems. However, the mechanisms driving these optimization gains remain poorly understood. In this work, we…
The problem of opportunistic spectrum access in cognitive radio networks has been recently formulated as a non-Bayesian restless multi-armed bandit problem. In this problem, there are N arms (corresponding to channels) and one player…
Test-time scaling has emerged as a promising direction for enhancing the reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models in last few years. In this work, we propose Population-Evolve, a training-free method inspired by Genetic Algorithms to…
We consider the distributed SGD problem, where a main node distributes gradient calculations among $n$ workers. By assigning tasks to all the workers and waiting only for the $k$ fastest ones, the main node can trade-off the algorithm's…
We present a formal model of human decision-making in explore-exploit tasks using the context of multi-armed bandit problems, where the decision-maker must choose among multiple options with uncertain rewards. We address the standard…
In many embedded systems, such as imaging sys- tems, the system has a single designated purpose, and same threads are executed repeatedly. Profiling thread behavior, allows the system to allocate each thread its resources in a way that…
Differential Evolution (DE) is a renowned optimization stratagem that can easily solve nonlinear and comprehensive problems. DE is a well known and uncomplicated population based probabilistic approach for comprehensive optimization. It has…
Modern optimization problems in scientific and engineering domains often rely on expensive black-box evaluations, such as those arising in physical simulations or deep learning pipelines, where gradient information is unavailable or…
We develop a general theory to optimize the frequentist regret for sequential learning problems, where efficient bandit and reinforcement learning algorithms can be derived from unified Bayesian principles. We propose a novel optimization…
We consider nonstationary multi-armed bandit problems where the model parameters of the arms change over time. We introduce the adaptive resetting bandit (ADR-bandit), a bandit algorithm class that leverages adaptive windowing techniques…
Context: Evolutionary algorithms typically require a large number of evaluations (of solutions) to converge - which can be very slow and expensive to evaluate.Objective: To solve search-based software engineering (SE) problems, using fewer…
We design new algorithms for the combinatorial pure exploration problem in the multi-arm bandit framework. In this problem, we are given $K$ distributions and a collection of subsets $\mathcal{V} \subset 2^{[K]}$ of these distributions, and…
Pure exploration is one of the fundamental problems in multi-armed bandits (MAB). However, existing works mostly focus on specific pure exploration tasks, without a holistic view of the general pure exploration problem. This work fills this…
Automating physical database design has remained a long-term interest in database research due to substantial performance gains afforded by optimised structures. Despite significant progress, a majority of today's commercial solutions are…
The integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) with Evolutionary Computation (EC) has unlocked new frontiers in scientific discovery but remains shackled by a fundamental constraint: the reliance on an Oracle--an objective,…
Bandit based methods for tree search have recently gained popularity when applied to huge trees, e.g. in the game of go [6]. Their efficient exploration of the tree enables to re- turn rapidly a good value, and improve preci- sion if more…