Related papers: Generalized Simulated Annealing
This article presents a new method for computing guaranteed convex and concave relaxations of nonlinear stochastic optimal control problems with final-time expected-value cost functions. This method is motivated by similar methods for…
We introduce a continuous global optimization method to the field of surface reconstruction from discrete noisy cloud of points with weak information on orientation. The proposed method uses an energy functional combining flux-based…
The problem of minimizing sum-of-nonconvex functions (i.e., convex functions that are average of non-convex ones) is becoming increasingly important in machine learning, and is the core machinery for PCA, SVD, regularized Newton's method,…
Consensus optimization has received considerable attention in recent years. A number of decentralized algorithms have been proposed for {convex} consensus optimization. However, to the behaviors or consensus \emph{nonconvex} optimization,…
Simulated annealing (SA) is a stochastic global optimisation technique applicable to a wide range of discrete and continuous variable problems. Despite its simplicity, the development of an effective SA optimiser for a given problem hinges…
We present two stochastic descent algorithms that apply to unconstrained optimization and are particularly efficient when the objective function is slow to evaluate and gradients are not easily obtained, as in some PDE-constrained…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) is a widely adopted iterative method for optimizing differentiable objective functions. In this paper, we propose and discuss a novel approach to scale up SGD in applications involving non-convex functions…
We consider the stochastic approximation problem where a convex function has to be minimized, given only the knowledge of unbiased estimates of its gradients at certain points, a framework which includes machine learning methods based on…
Due to the increasing demand for high performance and cost reduction within the framework of complex system design, numerical optimization of computationally costly problems is an increasingly popular topic in most engineering fields. In…
We propose an optimization method for minimizing the finite sums of smooth convex functions. Our method incorporates an accelerated gradient descent (AGD) and a stochastic variance reduction gradient (SVRG) in a mini-batch setting. Unlike…
A stochastic algorithm is proposed, finding the set of generalized means associated to a probability measure on a compact Riemannian manifold M and a continuous cost function on the product of M by itself. Generalized means include p-means…
This paper studies the application of the blended dynamics approach towards distributed optimization problem where the global cost function is given by a sum of local cost functions. The benefits include (i) individual cost function need…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) now acts as a fundamental part of optimization in current machine learning. Meanwhile, deep learning architectures have shown outstanding performance in a wide range of fields, such as natural language…
We introduce a generic scheme to solve nonconvex optimization problems using gradient-based algorithms originally designed for minimizing convex functions. Even though these methods may originally require convexity to operate, the proposed…
We solve a problem of non-convex stochastic optimisation with help of simulated annealing of Levy flights of a variable stability index. The search of the ground state of an unknown potential is non-local due to big jumps of the Levy…
Constrained non-convex optimization is fundamentally challenging, as global solutions are generally intractable and constraint qualifications may not hold. However, in many applications, including safe policy optimization in control and…
This paper presents a novel approach for denoising binary images using simulated annealing (SA), a global optimization technique that addresses the inherent challenges of non convex energy functions. Binary images are often corrupted by…
As one of the most robust global optimization methods, simulated annealing has received considerable attention, with many variations that attempt to improve the cooling schedule. This paper introduces a variant of simulated annealing that…
Gradient Symbolic Computation is proposed as a means of solving discrete global optimization problems using a neurally plausible continuous stochastic dynamical system. Gradient symbolic dynamics involves two free parameters that must be…
A popular approach to minimize a finite-sum of convex functions is stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and its variants. Fundamental research questions associated with SGD include: (i) To find a lower bound on the number of times that the…