A Note on Lerner Index, Cross-Elasticity and Revenue Optimization Invariants

We study common properties of retail pricing models in a general framework of calculus of variations. In particular, we observe that for any demand model, optimal de-seasoned revenue rate divided by price elasticity is time invariant. We also obtain a generalization of a well known inverse relationship between price elasticity of demand and Lerner index. … Read more

Improving direct search algorithms by multilevel optimization techniques

Direct Search algorithms are classical derivative-free methods for optimization. Though endowed with solid theoretical properties, they are not well suited for large-scale problems due to slow convergence and scaling issues. In this paper, we discuss how such limitations can be circumvented, on problems for which a hierarchy of objective functions is available, by using multilevel … Read more

A Stochastic Quasi-Newton Method for Large-Scale Optimization

Abstract The question of how to incorporate curvature information in stochastic approximation methods is challenging. The direct application of classical quasi- Newton updating techniques for deterministic optimization leads to noisy curvature estimates that have harmful effects on the robustness of the iteration. In this paper, we propose a stochastic quasi-Newton method that is efficient, robust … Read more

Alternating projections and coupling slope

We consider the method of alternating projections for finding a point in the intersection of two possibly nonconvex closed sets. We present a local linear convergence result that makes no regularity assumptions on either set (unlike previous results), while at the same time weakening standard transversal intersection assumptions. The proof grows out of a study … Read more

Distributed Optimization Methods for Large Scale Optimal Control

This thesis aims to develop and implement both nonlinear and linear distributed optimization methods that are applicable, but not restricted to the optimal control of distributed systems. Such systems are typically large scale, thus the well-established centralized solution strategies may be computationally overly expensive or impossible and the application of alternative control algorithms becomes necessary. … Read more

A Block Successive Upper Bound Minimization Method of Multipliers for Linearly Constrained Convex Optimization

Consider the problem of minimizing the sum of a smooth convex function and a separable nonsmooth convex function subject to linear coupling constraints. Problems of this form arise in many contemporary applications including signal processing, wireless networking and smart grid provisioning. Motivated by the huge size of these applications, we propose a new class of … Read more

Mitigating Uncertainty via Compromise Decisions in Two-stage Stochastic Linear Programming

Stochastic Programming (SP) has long been considered as a well-justified yet computationally challenging paradigm for practical applications. Computational studies in the literature often involve approximating a large number of scenarios by using a small number of scenarios to be processed via deterministic solvers, or running Sample Average Approximation on some genre of high performance machines … Read more

On QPCCs, QCQPs and Completely Positive Programs

This paper studies several classes of nonconvex optimization problems defined over convex cones, establishing connections between them and demonstrating that they can be equivalently formulated as convex completely positive programs. The problems being studied include: a quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP), a quadratic program with complementarity constraints (QPCC), and rank constrained semidefinite programs. Our results … Read more

Scheduling the Tasks of Two Agents with a Central Selection Mechanism

We address a class of deterministic scheduling problems in which two agents compete for the usage of a single machine. The agents have their own objective functions and submit in each round an arbitrary, unprocessed task from their buffer for possible selection. In each round the smaller of the two submitted tasks is chosen and … Read more

Confidence Levels for CVaR Risk Measures and Minimax Limits

Conditional value at risk (CVaR) has been widely used as a risk measure in finance. When the confidence level of CVaR is set close to 1, the CVaR risk measure approximates the extreme (worst scenario) risk measure. In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of the relationship between the two risk measures and its … Read more