New lower bounds for bilevel optimization with first-order oracles.
problem Complexity of bilevel optimization with first-order oracles.
method Development of hard instances and proof of lower bounds.
result Nontrivial lower bounds for first-order zero-respecting algorithms.
New methods solve optimization problems with heavy-tailed noise, improving upon existing complexity bounds.
problem Optimization problems with heavy-tailed noise and weakly average smoothness.
method Normalized stochastic first-order methods with Polyak, multi-extrapolated, and recursive momentum.
result First-order oracle complexity results for finding approximate stochastic stationary points under heavy-tailed noise.
SGD's performance improves with critical batch size, minimizing SFO complexity.
problem Optimizing SGD's performance with batch size and learning rate.
method Analysis of SGD using constant and decaying learning rates, focusing on batch size effects.
result SGD with critical batch size minimizes SFO complexity.
New methods solve complex optimization problems without strong convexity assumptions.
problem Complex bilevel optimization problems with minimax lower-level structures.
method Penalty-based first-order methods for bilevel minimax optimization.
result Achieves ε ε ε -KKT point with improved oracle complexity. New algorithm solves complex optimization problems without needing projections.
problem Optimizing nested functions under convex constraints with noisy evaluations.
method Projection-free conditional gradient-type algorithm for smooth stochastic multi-level composition optimization.
result The algorithm achieves ε ε ε -stationary solutions with complexity bounds independent of ε ε ε and T T T . Improved stochastic approximation method reduces residual error.
problem Reducing residual error in stochastic approximation algorithms.
method Fixed-schedule one-quarter barrier and bias-corrected acceleration.
result Achieves T − 1 / 2 + o ( 1 ) T^{-1/2+o(1)} T − 1/2 + o ( 1 ) residual reduction with O ( 1 ) O(1) O ( 1 ) primitive samples. A new method reduces the complexity of decentralized optimization.
problem Decentralized stochastic non-convex optimization over a network.
method GT-HSGD, a hybrid variance-reduced method.
result Achieves an oracle complexity of O(n^(-1)ε^(-3)) for small ε.
In this work we introduce a conditional accelerated lazy stochastic gradient descent algorithm with optimal number of calls to a stochastic first-order oracle and convergence rate O ( 1 ε 2 ) O\left(\frac{1}{\varepsilon^2}\right) O ( ε 2 1 ) improving over the projection-free, Online Frank-Wolfe based stochastic gradient descent of Hazan an…
A novel distributed method tracks gradients for convex optimization over networks.
problem Distributed optimization of strongly-convex functions over a network.
method S-AB algorithm using auxiliary variables and row/column stochastic weights.
result Linear convergence to a neighborhood of the global minimizer.
Unified approach for first-order methods with Markovian noise in stochastic optimization and variational inequalities.
problem Stochastic optimization problems with Markovian noise.
method Unified theoretical analysis of first-order gradient methods using randomized batching and multilevel Monte Carlo.
result Optimal (linear) dependence on the mixing time of the noise sequence, eliminating previous limiting assumptions.
Optimized method tackles convex optimization with heavy-tailed noise.
problem Convex optimization problems with noisy gradients.
method Vanilla stochastic proximal subgradient method without gradient clipping or normalization.
result Achieves optimal complexity for various convex optimization types under heavy-tailed noise.
Method solves complex optimization problems with high probability bounds.
problem Nonlinear equality constrained stochastic optimization problems.
method Step-search sequential quadratic programming method.
result High-probability bound on iteration complexity for first-order stationarity.
Paper develops a TR-SSQP method for noisy optimization with heavy-tailed noise.
problem Optimization problems with stochastic objectives and heavy-tailed noise.
method Trust-Region Stochastic Sequential Quadratic Programming (TR-SSQP) method.
result Achieves high-probability first-order and second-order stationarity bounds for heavy-tailed noise.
Study asks if memory constraints affect optimal convex optimization methods.
problem Characterize the minimax number of queries for convex optimization with memory constraints.
method Analyze first order methods under memory limitations.
result Optimal oracle complexity may be achievable with limited memory.
Paper tackles private optimization for non-smooth objectives efficiently.
problem Private stochastic convex optimization for non-smooth objectives.
method Noisy mirror descent algorithm.
result Achieves optimal rates in statistical complexity and number of queries.
We propose a reduction for non-convex optimization that can (1) turn an stationary-point finding algorithm into an local-minimum finding one, and (2) replace the Hessian-vector product computations with only gradient computations. It works both in the stochastic and the deterministic settings, without hurting the algor…
New algorithms solve complex multi-level optimization problems with improved efficiency.
problem Smooth stochastic multi-level composition optimization problems.
method Two algorithms using moving-average and linearized stochastic estimates.
result Achieved sample complexities of O(1/ε^4) and O(1/ε^6).
SARAH and SPIDER are two recently developed stochastic variance-reduced algorithms, and SPIDER has been shown to achieve a near-optimal first-order oracle complexity in smooth nonconvex optimization. However, SPIDER uses an accuracy-dependent stepsize that slows down the convergence in practice, and cannot handle objec…
New adaptive step-size method for convex optimization without tuning.
problem Optimizing convex functions efficiently with stochastic gradients.
method Adapted Adaptive Gradient Descent Without Descent to stochastic setting.
result Stochastic gradient descent converges under various assumptions.
Study efficient algorithms for nonconvex optimization with state-dependent Markov data.
problem Stochastic optimization with Markovian data and state-dependent transition kernels.
method Projection-based and projection-free algorithms for constrained nonconvex problems.
result The number of oracle calls to achieve an ε ε ε -stationary point is O ( 1 / ε 2.5 ) \mathcal{O}(1/ε^{2.5}) O ( 1/ ε 2.5 ) . New algorithm optimizes convex functions with noisy evaluations in one dimension.
problem Optimizing convex functions with noisy zero-order evaluations in one dimension.
method Proposed a computationally efficient algorithm achieving O ( 1 / T ) O(1/\sqrt{T}) O ( 1/ T ) convergence rate. result Achieved the optimal O ( 1 / T ) O(1/\sqrt{T}) O ( 1/ T ) convergence rate, closing the gap in one dimension. Improved method reduces projection calls for nonsmooth convex optimization.
problem Optimizing nonsmooth convex functions with convex constraints.
method MOPES and MOLES methods combining Moreau-Yosida smoothing and accelerated first-order schemes.
result Achieves ε ε ε -suboptimality with significantly fewer projection calls. New algorithms ensure reproducibility and optimal convergence in convex optimization.
problem Trade-off between reproducibility and convergence rate in convex optimization.
method Regularization-based algorithms for smooth convex minimization and minimax optimization.
result Achieves optimal reproducibility and near-optimal gradient complexity for various oracle settings.
This paper analyzes bias-variance trade-off for clipped SFOMs, improving complexity guarantees for heavy-tailed noise.
problem Improving complexity guarantees for stochastic optimization methods with heavy-tailed noise.
method Novel analysis of bias-variance trade-off in gradient clipping for clipped SFOMs.
result Improved complexity guarantees for clipped SFOMs across various tail indices, including infinite mean noise.
Consider the stochastic composition optimization problem where the objective is a composition of two expected-value functions. We propose a new stochastic first-order method, namely the accelerated stochastic compositional proximal gradient (ASC-PG) method, which updates based on queries to the sampling oracle using tw…
A faster ADMM method for nonconvex optimization with improved complexity.
problem Nonconvex optimization problems in machine learning.
method SPIDER-ADMM, a stochastic ADMM method using a new differential estimator.
result Achieves optimal IFO complexity of O ( n + n 1 / 2 ε − 1 ) \mathcal{O}(n+n^{1/2}ε^{-1}) O ( n + n 1/2 ε − 1 ) for finding an ε ε ε -approximate stationary point. Lower bounds found for nonconvex-strongly-concave min-max optimization problems.
problem Finding stationary points in nonconvex-strongly-concave min-max optimization.
method Provided lower bounds for first-order oracle complexity.
result Lower bounds of Ω(√κε⁻²) for deterministic oracles and Ω(√κε⁻² + κ¹/₃ε⁻⁴) for stochastic oracles.
SFLS method finds feasible solutions faster with less data.
problem Efficiently solving SOECs with near-feasibility and near-optimality.
method SFLS method that emphasizes feasibility before convergence.
result SFLS maintains high-probability feasibility at each iteration.
A new algorithm for decentralized optimization over directed graphs.
problem Decentralized stochastic optimization over directed networks.
method Gradient tracking and S-ADDOPT algorithm with constant and decaying step-sizes.
result S-ADDOPT converges linearly with constant step-size and sublinearly with decaying step-size.
DESTRESS optimizes decentralized nonconvex optimization with optimal IFO complexity and efficient communication.
problem Decentralized nonconvex finite-sum optimization in multi-agent systems.
method DESTRESS uses stochastic recursive gradient updates, gradient tracking, and careful hyper-parameter choices to achieve optimal IFO complexity with efficient communication.
result DESTRESS matches the optimal IFO complexity of centralized algorithms while maintaining communication efficiency.
A new approach RA improves stochastic optimization by executing multiple steps between subsample updates.
problem Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of stochastic optimization methods.
method Developed Retrospective Approximation (RA) which executes multiple steps between subsample updates using a deterministic solver.
result RA achieves almost sure and L 1 L_1 L 1 consistency under weak conditions and optimizes iteration and oracle complexity. Lower bounds on queries needed for finding stationary points in non-convex optimization.
problem Finding ε ε ε -stationary points in non-convex stochastic optimization. method Proving lower bounds on the number of queries required by stochastic first-order methods.
result Lower bounds on the number of queries required to find ε ε ε -stationary points are tight and optimal. Piecewise polynomial interpolation-based gradient descent reduces oracle complexity for smooth loss functions.
problem Optimizing empirical risk minimization loss functions
method Piecewise polynomial interpolation-based gradient descent
result Oracle complexity is reduced for smooth loss functions
Algorithm ensures safe optimization under unknown constraints.
problem Optimization under unknown safety constraints.
method Reliable Frank-Wolfe (Reliable-FW) algorithm for non-convex functions.
result Algorithm finds approximate first-order stationary points safely.
Paper shows faster convergence to local-minimizers in over-parametrized models under interpolation-like conditions.
problem Escaping saddle-points in over-parametrized models.
method Stochastic and deterministic optimization algorithms under interpolation-like conditions.
result Oracle complexity of PSGD and SCRN algorithms to reach ε ε ε -local-minimizer matches or improves upon deterministic rates. Two new methods solve nonsmooth optimization on Riemannian Stiefel manifold.
problem Optimization over nonsmooth, non-differentiable functions on Riemannian manifolds.
method R-ProxSGD and R-ProxSPB, generalizing proximal SGD and SpiderBoost.
result R-ProxSPB finds ε-stationary points with IFO complexity of Ø(ε^(-3)) in online and Ø(n + √nε^(-2)) in finite-sum cases.
New method accelerates steepest descent for convex optimization.
problem Achieving acceleration for general ℓ p \ell_p ℓ p smooth functions. method Primal-dual iterate sequences with differing norms, implicitly determined interpolation parameter.
result Improves iteration complexity to O ( d 1 − 2 p ) O(d^{1-\frac{2}{p}}) O ( d 1 − p 2 ) for ℓ p \ell_p ℓ p norm smooth problems. New algorithm tackles stochastic bilevel optimization under relaxed smoothness conditions.
problem Optimal algorithms for stochastic bilevel optimization under relaxed smoothness conditions.
method Introduces a novel fully single-loop and Hessian-inversion-free algorithmic framework for stochastic bilevel optimization.
result Demonstrates state-of-the-art oracle complexity results for multi-objective robust bilevel optimization.
New oracles improve stochastic optimization with noisy or biased measurements.
problem Optimizing functions with noisy or biased measurements.
method Introduced biased gradient oracles for stochastic optimization, analyzed RSG and SGD algorithms with these oracles.
result Derived non-asymptotic bounds for convergence rates of algorithms with biased gradient oracles.
Study shows Stochastic Mirror Descent optimizes convex problems with infinite noise variance.
problem Optimizing convex problems with infinite noise variance.
method Stochastic Mirror Descent algorithm with uniformly convex mirror maps.
result Demonstrates convergence rate quantified in terms of iterations, dimensionality, and geometric parameters.
New algorithm tackles nested bi-level optimization problems for robust feature learning.
problem Nested compositional bi-level optimization problems in machine learning.
method Stochastic approximation algorithms for solving nested compositional bi-level optimization problems without matrix inversions.
result Achieves an ε-stationary solution with an oracle complexity of approximately O_T(1/ε^2).
New bounds on complexity for finding near-stationary points in stochastic convex optimization.
problem Finding near-stationary points in stochastic convex optimization.
method Joint analysis of local stochastic oracle and global oracle models; extensions of recursive regularization technique.
result Logarithmic dependence on smoothness in global oracle model for finding near-stationary points.
New method solves optimization problems with stochastic objectives and constraints.
problem Optimization problems with stochastic objectives and deterministic constraints.
method Trust-region interior-point stochastic sequential quadratic programming (TR-IP-SSQP) method.
result Global almost-sure convergence to first-order stationary points under standard assumptions.
We consider the minimization of submodular functions subject to ordering constraints. We show that this optimization problem can be cast as a convex optimization problem on a space of uni-dimensional measures, with ordering constraints corresponding to first-order stochastic dominance. We propose new discretization sch…
New algorithm reduces complexity for optimizing complex machine learning tasks.
problem Optimizing complex machine learning objectives like reinforcement learning and portfolio management.
method Developed SARAH-Compositional algorithm using Stochastic Recursive Gradient Descent.
result Achieved optimal IFO complexity bounds for stochastic compositional optimization.
In this paper we study stochastic quasi-Newton methods for nonconvex stochastic optimization, where we assume that noisy information about the gradients of the objective function is available via a stochastic first-order oracle (SFO). We propose a general framework for such methods, for which we prove almost sure conve…
Study on gradient complexity of private optimization with private oracles.
problem Analyzing the efficiency of differentially private optimization algorithms.
method Lower bounds on the number of first-order oracle queries for private optimization.
result Lower bounds on the number of queries for private optimization algorithms, showing a dimension-dependent runtime penalty.
Paper tackles dynamic pricing in a geometrically decaying environment, achieving better occupancy with lower rates.
problem Minimizing expected loss in a dynamically changing environment with decisions dependent on the data distribution.
method Introduces algorithms for information and loss function settings, using repeated decision deployment to allow mixing of the environment.
result Iteration complexity matches first and zero order stochastic gradient methods up to logarithmic factors.