Related papers: Accurate and Efficient MCMC for Latent Position Mo…
It is well-known that irreversible MCMC algorithms converge faster to their stationary distributions than reversible ones. Using the special geometric structure of Lie groups $\mathcal G$ and dissipation fields compatible with the…
In this paper, we study a popular method for inference of the Bradley-Terry model parameters, namely the MM algorithm, for maximum likelihood estimation and maximum a posteriori probability estimation. This class of models includes the…
The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is a powerful computational technique for finding the maximum likelihood estimates for parametric models when the data are not fully observed. The EM is best suited for situations where the…
We propose a generic Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm to speed up computations for datasets with many observations. A key feature of our approach is the use of the highly efficient difference estimator from the survey sampling…
Many large scale problems in computational fluid dynamics such as uncertainty quantification, Bayesian inversion, data assimilation and PDE constrained optimization are considered very challenging computationally as they require a large…
We develop simple and general techniques to obtain faster (near-linear time) static approximation algorithms, as well as efficient dynamic data structures, for four fundamental geometric optimization problems: minimum piercing set (MPS),…
Bayesian networks in their Factor Graph Reduced Normal Form (FGrn) are a powerful paradigm for implementing inference graphs. Unfortunately, the computational and memory costs of these networks may be considerable, even for relatively small…
Deriving Bayesian inference for exponential random graph models (ERGMs) is a challenging "doubly intractable" problem as the normalizing constants of the likelihood and posterior density are both intractable. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)…
The short-term forecasting of real-time locational marginal price (LMP) and network congestion is considered from a system operator perspective. A new probabilistic forecasting technique is proposed based on a multiparametric programming…
The classic algorithm of Viterbi computes the most likely path in a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) that results in a given sequence of observations. It runs in time $O(Tn^2)$ given a sequence of $T$ observations from a HMM with $n$ states.…
We study the restricted case of Scheduling on Unrelated Parallel Machines. In this problem, we are given a set of jobs $J$ with processing times $p_j$ and each job may be scheduled only on some subset of machines $S_j \subseteq M$. The goal…
Laplacian-P-splines (LPS) associate the P-splines smoother and the Laplace approximation in a unifying framework for fast and flexible inference under the Bayesian paradigm. Gaussian Markov field priors imposed on penalized latent variables…
Analysis of the topology of a graph, regular or bipartite one, can be done by clustering for regular ones or co-clustering for bipartite ones. The Stochastic Block Model and the Latent Block Model are two models, which are very similar for…
We study computational and statistical aspects of learning Latent Markov Decision Processes (LMDPs). In this model, the learner interacts with an MDP drawn at the beginning of each epoch from an unknown mixture of MDPs. To sidestep known…
In this paper we provide faster algorithms for approximately solving discounted Markov Decision Processes in multiple parameter regimes. Given a discounted Markov Decision Process (DMDP) with $|S|$ states, $|A|$ actions, discount factor…
In lattice quantum field theory studies, parameters defining the lattice theory must be tuned toward criticality to access continuum physics. Commonly used Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods suffer from critical slowing down in this…
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms are often used for approximate inference inside learning, but their slow mixing can be difficult to diagnose and the approximations can seriously degrade learning. To alleviate these issues, we…
We present a family of fast pseudo-approximation algorithms for the minimum balanced vertex separator problem in a graph. Given a graph $G=(V,E)$ with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, and a (constant) balance parameter $c\in(0,1/2)$, where $G$…
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods have a drawback when working with a target distribution or likelihood function that is computationally expensive to evaluate, specially when working with big data. This paper focuses on…
Given a graph in which a few vertices are deemed interesting a priori, the vertex nomination task is to order the remaining vertices into a nomination list such that there is a concentration of interesting vertices at the top of the list.…