Related papers: Bounds on Query Convergence
Efficient global optimization (EGO) is one of the most widely used noise-free Bayesian optimization algorithms.It comprises the Gaussian process (GP) surrogate model and expected improvement (EI) acquisition function. In practice, when EGO…
We consider online convex optimization with a zero-order oracle feedback. In particular, the decision maker does not know the explicit representation of the time-varying cost functions, or their gradients. At each time step, she observes…
We study pure exploration problems in which the set of correct answers is possibly infinite. For example, such problems arise when regressing a continuous function on the means of the bandit or when learning Nash equilibria by querying…
We consider the problem of prediction with expert advice for ``easy'' sequences. We show that a variant of NormalHedge enjoys a second-order $\epsilon$-quantile regret bound of $O\big(\sqrt{V_T \log(V_T/\epsilon)}\big) $ when $V_T > \log…
We consider the online version of the isotonic regression problem. Given a set of linearly ordered points (e.g., on the real line), the learner must predict labels sequentially at adversarially chosen positions and is evaluated by her total…
Thompson Sampling is one of the oldest heuristics for multi-armed bandit problems. It is a randomized algorithm based on Bayesian ideas, and has recently generated significant interest after several studies demonstrated it to have better…
One way to make decisions under uncertainty is to select an optimal option from a possible range of options, by maximizing the expected utilities derived from a probability model. However, under severe uncertainty, identifying precise…
We study a class of adversarial bandit optimization problems in which the loss functions may be non-convex and non-smooth. In each round, the learner observes a loss that consists of an underlying linear component together with an…
This paper studies batched bandit learning problems for nondegenerate functions. We introduce an algorithm that solves the batched bandit problem for nondegenerate functions near-optimally. More specifically, we introduce an algorithm,…
We derive an alternative proof for the regret of Thompson sampling (\ts) in the stochastic linear bandit setting. While we obtain a regret bound of order $\widetilde{O}(d^{3/2}\sqrt{T})$ as in previous results, the proof sheds new light on…
We consider the problem of joint routing and scheduling in queueing networks, where the edge transmission costs are unknown. At each time-slot, the network controller receives noisy observations of transmission costs only for those edges it…
In this paper, we improve the regret bound for online kernel selection under bandit feedback. Previous algorithm enjoys a $O((\Vert f\Vert^2_{\mathcal{H}_i}+1)K^{\frac{1}{3}}T^{\frac{2}{3}})$ expected bound for Lipschitz loss functions. We…
Writing for a general mathematical audience, we provide elementary upper and lower bounds on the growth (as a function of N) of the sum \sum_{n=1}^N (-1)^{\floor{n x}} for various fixed x. For example, if x is a quadratic irrational, then…
We present an algorithm based on posterior sampling (aka Thompson sampling) that achieves near-optimal worst-case regret bounds when the underlying Markov Decision Process (MDP) is communicating with a finite, though unknown, diameter. Our…
We consider stochastic optimization problems with heavy-tailed noise with structured density. For such problems, we show that it is possible to get faster rates of convergence than $\mathcal{O}(K^{-2(\alpha - 1)/\alpha})$, when the…
We study how to adapt to smoothly-varying ('easy') environments in well-known online learning problems where acquiring information is expensive. For the problem of label efficient prediction, which is a budgeted version of prediction with…
Algorithms for hyperparameter optimization abound, all of which work well under different and often unverifiable assumptions. Motivated by the general challenge of sequentially choosing which algorithm to use, we study the more specific…
Understanding how to efficiently learn while adhering to safety constraints is essential for using online reinforcement learning in practical applications. However, proving rigorous regret bounds for safety-constrained reinforcement…
The 2-opt heuristic is a very simple local search heuristic for the traveling salesperson problem. In practice it usually converges quickly to solutions within a few percentages of optimality. In contrast to this, its running-time is…
This paper studies the Exponential Weights (EW) algorithm with an isotropic Gaussian prior for online logistic regression. We show that the near-optimal worst-case regret bound $O(d\log(Bn))$ for EW, established by Kakade and Ng (2005)…