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This paper considers simulation-based optimization of the performance of a regime-switching stochastic system over a finite set of feasible configurations. Inspired by the stochastic fictitious play learning rules in game theory, we propose…
Two genres of heuristics that are frequently reported to perform much better on "real-world" instances than in the worst case are greedy algorithms and local search algorithms. In this paper, we systematically study these two types of…
Stochastic local search (SLS) algorithms have exhibited great effectiveness in finding models of random instances of the Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT). As one of the most widely known and used SLS algorithm, WalkSAT plays a key role…
We develop and analyze a set of new sequential simulation-optimization algorithms for large-scale multi-dimensional discrete optimization via simulation problems with a convexity structure. The "large-scale" notion refers to that the…
Quantum computer algorithms can exploit the structure of random satisfiability problems. This paper extends a previous empirical evaluation of such an algorithm and gives an approximate asymptotic analysis accounting for both the average…
The recently developed short-time linear response algorithm, which predicts the average response of a nonlinear chaotic system with forcing and dissipation to small external perturbation, generally yields high precision of the response…
An algorithm is proposed, analyzed, and tested experimentally for solving stochastic optimization problems in which the decision variables are constrained to satisfy equations defined by deterministic, smooth, and nonlinear functions. It is…
This paper proposes a new framework for providing approximation guarantees of local search algorithms. Local search is a basic algorithm design technique and is widely used for various combinatorial optimization problems. To analyze local…
Recently, it has been proven that evolutionary algorithms produce good results for a wide range of combinatorial optimization problems. Some of the considered problems are tackled by evolutionary algorithms that use a representation which…
Evolutionary algorithms have been frequently applied to constrained continuous optimisation problems. We carry out feature based comparisons of different types of evolutionary algorithms such as evolution strategies, differential evolution…
We analyze a stochastic approximation algorithm for decision-dependent problems, wherein the data distribution used by the algorithm evolves along the iterate sequence. The primary examples of such problems appear in performative prediction…
Local search algorithms applied to optimization problems often suffer from getting trapped in a local optimum. The common solution for this deficiency is to restart the algorithm when no progress is observed. Alternatively, one can start…
We study the design of interactive clustering algorithms for data sets satisfying natural stability assumptions. Our algorithms start with any initial clustering and only make local changes in each step; both are desirable features in many…
An overview of some methods of statistical physics applied to the analysis of algorithms for optimization problems (satisfiability of Boolean constraints, vertex cover of graphs, decoding, ...) with distributions of random inputs is…
Despite significant advances in characterizing the highly nonconvex landscapes of constraint satisfaction problems, the good performance of certain algorithms in solving hard combinatorial optimization tasks remains poorly understood. This…
This paper considers the problem of designing a dynamical system to solve constrained optimization problems in a distributed way and in an anytime fashion (i.e., such that the feasible set is forward invariant). For problems with separable…
In this paper, we propose a stochastic search algorithm for solving general optimization problems with little structure. The algorithm iteratively finds high quality solutions by randomly sampling candidate solutions from a parameterized…
This article describes a model and an exact solution method for facility location problems with decision-dependent uncertainties. The model allows characterizing the probability distribution of the random elements as a function of the…
Optimization under uncertainty deals with the problem of optimizing stochastic cost functions given some partial information on their inputs. These problems are extremely difficult to solve and yet pervade all areas of technological and…
This paper presents a general class of dynamic stochastic optimization problems we refer to as Stochastic Depletion Problems. A number of challenging dynamic optimization problems of practical interest are stochastic depletion problems.…