New loss function handles uncertain constraints in CSLO problems.
problem Handling uncertain inequality constraints in CSLO with machine learning predictions.
method Introduces SPO-RC loss and SPO-RC+ surrogate, trains on truncated datasets, corrects bias.
result SPO-RC+ effectively manages constraint uncertainty and improves performance.
This paper improves risk bounds and calibration for smart predict-then-optimize method.
problem Improving risk bounds and calibration for smart predict-then-optimize method.
method Develops risk bounds and uniform calibration results for the SPO+ loss relative to the SPO loss.
result Empirical minimizer of the SPO+ loss achieves low excess true risk with high probability.
Develops active learning method for linear optimization with margin-based criterion.
problem Optimizing decisions in linear optimization problems with limited labeled data.
method Smart Predict-then-Optimize (SPO) loss and margin-based active learning algorithm.
result Algorithm achieves significantly fewer labels than naive supervised learning, especially for minimizing SPO loss.
A new autoregressive SPO method improves decision-making for dependent data.
problem Improving decision-making for dependent data in stochastic optimization.
method An autoregressive Smart Predict-then-Optimize (SPO) method for time series data.
result Generalization bounds and uniform calibration results for the SPO loss in autoregressive models.
New approach optimizes expensive black-box systems with uncertain outputs.
problem Optimizing expensive black-box systems with limited data and uncertainty.
method Flexible non-interpolating surrogate model (TK-MARS) and Smart-Replication approach.
result TK-MARS outperforms original MARS and detects important variables.
Proposes a probabilistic framework for smart contract risk quantification.
problem Quantifying financial risk of smart contract cyber attacks and failures.
method Probabilistic graph-theoretical framework using bond percolation models.
result Analytical results and numerical examples for aggregate loss distribution.
Many real-world analytics problems involve two significant challenges: prediction and optimization. Due to the typically complex nature of each challenge, the standard paradigm is predict-then-optimize. By and large, machine learning tools are intended to minimize prediction error and do not account for how the predict…
A smart method predicts and optimizes decisions online with resource constraints.
problem Online decision-making with resource constraints.
method Combines prediction and optimization with dual update using mirror descent.
result Regret bounds and convergence rates for general convex feasible regions.
Paper proposes SPO paradigm for better portfolio optimization in real markets.
problem Real-world trading frictions and constraints affect portfolio optimization quality.
method SPO paradigm with decision-focused training using surrogate loss and linear predictors.
result Decision-focused training improves risk-adjusted performance and robustness.
New bounds show polyhedral surrogates are optimal for generalization.
problem Proving generalization rates for polyhedral loss functions.
method Developed two general results for polyhedral surrogates.
result Polyhedral surrogates provide linear surrogate regret bounds, translating directly to target rates.
We present surrogate regret bounds for arbitrary surrogate losses in the context of binary classification with label-dependent costs. Such bounds relate a classifier's risk, assessed with respect to a surrogate loss, to its cost-sensitive classification risk. Two approaches to surrogate regret bounds are developed. The…
We establish linear regret bounds for convex smooth losses using Fenchel-Young losses.
problem Establishing linear regret bounds for convex smooth losses.
method Constructing a convex smooth surrogate loss using Fenchel-Young losses generated by the convolutional negentropy.
result We derive a smooth loss with a linear surrogate regret bound.
Paper introduces new loss functions for multi-class abstention learning.
problem Learning with multi-class classification and the ability to abstain.
method Developed new families of surrogate losses for abstention.
result Proved strong consistency guarantees for new surrogate losses.
We formalize and study the natural approach of designing convex surrogate loss functions via embeddings, for problems such as classification, ranking, or structured prediction. In this approach, one embeds each of the finitely many predictions (e.g.\ rankings) as a point in Rd, assigns the original loss val…
In this dissertation, we focus on several important problems in structured prediction. In structured prediction, the label has a rich intrinsic substructure, and the loss varies with respect to the predicted label and the true label pair. Structured SVM is an extension of binary SVM to adapt to such structured tasks. I…
This paper develops efficient surrogate models for optimization of complex dynamical systems.
problem Computational expense in solving complex dynamical systems through numerical simulation.
method Combination of proper orthogonal decomposition and radial basis functions for constructing low-dimensional surrogate models.
result Surrogate models reduce computational time for optimization problems while maintaining accuracy.
Study on calibration and consistency of adversarial surrogate losses.
problem Designing robust classifiers with theoretical guarantees.
method Extensive analysis of H-calibration and H-consistency of adversarial surrogate losses.
result Some convex loss functions and supremum-based convex losses are not H-calibrated for important hypothesis sets.
Study on learning to defer with multiple experts using new surrogate losses.
problem Learning to defer with multiple experts in a machine learning context.
method Introducing a new family of surrogate losses for the multiple-expert setting, proving H-consistency bounds, and designing learning algorithms. result Explicit guarantees for new learning to defer algorithms based on minimization of these surrogate losses.
We carefully study how well minimizing convex surrogate loss functions, corresponds to minimizing the misclassification error rate for the problem of binary classification with linear predictors. In particular, we show that amongst all convex surrogate losses, the hinge loss gives essentially the best possible bound, o…
Learning with non-modular losses is an important problem when sets of predictions are made simultaneously. The main tools for constructing convex surrogate loss functions for set prediction are margin rescaling and slack rescaling. In this work, we show that these strategies lead to tight convex surrogates iff the unde…
New method simplifies checking consistency of differentiable loss functions.
problem Verifying consistency of differentiable loss functions is difficult.
method Developed a new approach called strong indirect elicitation (strong IE) to simplify checking consistency.
result Strong IE is equivalent to calibration for strongly convex, differentiable surrogates.
The paper studies consistency of surrogate loss procedures under constrained classifiers.
problem Consistency of surrogate loss approaches under constrained classifiers without correct specification.
method The paper develops theoretical results and hinge loss based procedures for a constrained classification problem.
result Hinge losses are the only surrogate losses that preserve consistency in second-best scenarios.
Adversarial consistency depends on the uniqueness of adversarial Bayes classifiers.
problem Consistency of adversarial surrogate losses is not guaranteed.
method Connected consistency of adversarial surrogate losses to the uniqueness of adversarial Bayes classifiers.
result A convex surrogate loss is statistically consistent for adversarial learning if and only if the adversarial Bayes classifier is unique.
Unified surrogate loss framework for multi-label learning with strong consistency guarantees.
problem Improving consistency and accounting for label correlations in multi-label learning.
method Introducing multi-label logistic loss and extending it to comprehensive multi-label comp-sum losses, proving strong consistency guarantees for any multi-label loss.
result Unified surrogate loss framework benefiting from strong consistency guarantees for any multi-label loss.
Develops a transparent surrogate model for complex data.
problem Balancing accuracy and transparency in complex decision-making models.
method Partial dependence effects for feature engineering, smart segmentation, and GLM fitting.
result The maidrr GLM closely approximates a black box model and outperforms benchmarks.
The minimization of loss functions is the heart and soul of Machine Learning. In this paper, we propose an off-the-shelf optimization approach that can minimize virtually any non-differentiable and non-decomposable loss function (e.g. Miss-classification Rate, AUC, F1, Jaccard Index, Mathew Correlation Coefficient, etc…
This research analyzes the consistency of convex and nonconvex surrogate losses for adversarially robust classification.
problem Ensuring classifiers are robust to adversarial perturbations.
method Analysis of convex and nonconvex surrogate losses through the lens of calibration.
result No convex surrogate loss is calibrated with respect to the adversarial 0-1 loss for linear models, but nonconvex losses can be calibrated under certain conditions.
We study the rates of convergence from empirical surrogate risk minimizers to the Bayes optimal classifier. Specifically, we introduce the notion of \emph{consistency intensity} to characterize a surrogate loss function and exploit this notion to obtain the rate of convergence from an empirical surrogate risk minimizer…
Active learning is a type of sequential design for supervised machine learning, in which the learning algorithm sequentially requests the labels of selected instances from a large pool of unlabeled data points. The objective is to produce a classifier of relatively low risk, as measured under the 0-1 loss, ideally usin…
Paper establishes a universal growth rate for smooth surrogate losses in classification.
problem Analyzing growth rates of consistency bounds for various surrogate losses.
method Proves square-root growth rate for smooth margin-based losses; extends to multi-class classification.
result Demonstrates a universal square-root growth rate for smooth comp-sum and constrained losses.
Study on H-consistency bounds for machine learning surrogates.
problem Estimating target loss error relative to surrogate loss error in machine learning.
method Developed H-consistency bounds for various surrogates and loss functions. result Stronger guarantees than existing methods, offering distribution-dependent and -independent bounds.
Empirical risk minimization frequently employs convex surrogates to underlying discrete loss functions in order to achieve computational tractability during optimization. However, classical convex surrogates can only tightly bound modular loss functions, sub-modular functions or supermodular functions separately while …
AUC (area under ROC curve) is an important evaluation criterion, which has been popularly used in many learning tasks such as class-imbalance learning, cost-sensitive learning, learning to rank, etc. Many learning approaches try to optimize AUC, while owing to the non-convexity and discontinuousness of AUC, almost all …
Study of loss functions for learning to defer, proving consistency.
problem Learning to defer in machine learning.
method Introduced a family of surrogate losses parameterized by Ψ and proved their consistency. result Proved realizable H-consistency and Bayes-consistency of specific surrogate losses. Proposes a method for inference in high-dimensional classification with non-differentiable surrogate losses.
problem Lack of inference procedures for identifying driving factors in high-dimensional classification with non-differentiable surrogate losses.
method Kernel-smoothed decorrelated score and cross-fitted version for hypothesis tests and interval estimators.
result Valid and superior inference methods for high-dimensional classification with non-differentiable surrogate losses.
We study consistency properties of surrogate loss functions for general multiclass learning problems, defined by a general multiclass loss matrix. We extend the notion of classification calibration, which has been studied for binary and multiclass 0-1 classification problems (and for certain other specific learning pro…
Symmetric losses improve classifier robustness from corrupted labels.
problem Improving classifier performance from corrupted labels.
method Symmetric losses that satisfy a certain condition.
result Symmetric losses enhance robust classification from corrupted labels.
In this paper we refine the process of computing calibration functions for a number of multiclass classification surrogate losses. Calibration functions are a powerful tool for easily converting bounds for the surrogate risk (which can be computed through well-known methods) into bounds for the true risk, the probabili…
Study proposes a differentiable surrogate loss function for optimizing Fβ score in binary classification with imbalanced data.
problem Non-differentiability of Fβ score makes it unsuitable for optimization by gradient-based learning. method Investigated relationship between Fβ score and loss functions, proposed a differentiable surrogate loss function. result Gradient paths of the proposed surrogate Fβ loss function approximate the gradient paths of the Fβ score. We provide novel theoretical insights on structured prediction in the context of efficient convex surrogate loss minimization with consistency guarantees. For any task loss, we construct a convex surrogate that can be optimized via stochastic gradient descent and we prove tight bounds on the so-called "calibration func…
We propose a robust adversarial prediction framework for general multiclass classification. Our method seeks predictive distributions that robustly optimize non-convex and non-continuous multiclass loss metrics against the worst-case conditional label distributions (the adversarial distributions) that (approximately) m…
New PG losses improve decision optimization in misspecified models.
problem Improving decision optimization in models that are not perfectly specified.
method Introducing Perturbation Gradient (PG) losses to connect decision loss with directional derivatives and optimizing using gradient techniques.
result PG losses yield best-in-class policies asymptotically, even in misspecified settings.
We propose a new model of minority game with so-called smart agents such that the standard deviation and the total loss in this model reach the theoretical minimum values in the limit of long time. The smart agents use trail and error method to make a choice but bring global optimization to the system, which suggests t…
Aims to optimize complex multivariate systems with constraints.
problem Optimizing force-field systems in physics with large-scale simulations.
method Combines machine learning and experimental design to find feasible input combinations.
result Locates multiple good regions in the input space.
Bayes-consistent disagreement discrepancy loss improves model robustness.
problem Distribution shift in real-world neural network deployment.
method Introducing a novel disagreement loss that is Bayes consistent.
result Proves existing surrogates for disagreement discrepancy are not Bayes consistent.
Study of estimation errors in surrogate loss minimizers, providing stronger guarantees than existing methods.
problem Estimation errors in surrogate loss minimizers for various hypothesis sets.
method Detailed study of H-consistency estimation error bounds, proving general theorems for distribution-dependent and independent settings. result Explicit bounds for zero-one and adversarial losses, showing enhancements under distributional assumptions.
Paper analyzes proper losses and their performance in machine learning tasks.
problem Understanding the performance of estimators and forecasters in machine learning tasks.
method Analyzes surrogate regret and convergence rates for strictly proper losses.
result Strongly proper losses achieve the optimal convergence rate.
Area under ROC (AUC) is an important metric for binary classification and bipartite ranking problems. However, it is difficult to directly optimizing AUC as a learning objective, so most existing algorithms are based on optimizing a surrogate loss to AUC. One significant drawback of these surrogate losses is that they …