Based on a preconditioned version of the randomized block-coordinate forward-backward algorithm recently proposed in [Combettes,Pesquet,2014], several variants of block-coordinate primal-dual algorithms are designed in order to solve a wide array of monotone inclusion problems. These methods rely on a sweep of blocks of variables which are activated at each iteration according to a random rule, … Read more
Stochastic variational inequalities (SVI) provide a means for modeling various optimization and equilibrium problems where data are subject to uncertainty. Often it is necessary to estimate the true SVI solution by the solution of a sample average approximation (SAA) problem. This paper proposes three methods for building confidence intervals for components of the true solution, … Read more
Uncertain parameters appear in many optimization problems raised by real-world applications. To handle such problems, several approaches to model uncertainty are available, such as stochastic programming and robust optimization. This study is focused on robust optimization, in particular, the criteria to select and determine a robust solution. We provide an overview on robust optimization criteria … Read more
This paper provides a study of integer linear programming formulations for the diameter constrained spanning tree problem (DMSTP) in the natural space of edge design variables. After presenting a straightforward model based on the well known jump inequalities a new stronger family of circular-jump inequalities is introduced. These inequalities are further generalized in two ways: … Read more
Support Vector Machines (SVM) is the state-of-the-art in Supervised Classification. In this paper the Cluster Support Vector Machines (CLSVM) methodology is proposed with the aim to reduce the complexity of the SVM classifier in the presence of categorical features. The CLSVM methodology lets categories cluster around their peers and builds an SVM classifier using the … Read more
We present a primal-dual algorithmic framework to obtain approximate solutions to a prototypical constrained convex optimization problem, and rigorously characterize how common structural assumptions affect the numerical efficiency. Our main analysis technique provides a fresh perspective on Nesterov’s excessive gap technique in a structured fashion and unifies it with smoothing and primal-dual methods. For instance, … Read more
We consider the problem of minimizing a general continuously differentiable function over symmetric sets under sparsity constraints. These type of problems are generally hard to solve as the sparsity constraint induces a combinatorial constraint into the problem, rendering the feasible set to be nonconvex. We begin with a study of the properties of the orthogonal … Read more
This paper introduces a new vehicle routing problem transferring one commodity between customers with a capacitated vehicle that can visit a customer more than once,although a maximum number of visits must be respected. It generalizes the capacitated vehicle routing problem with split demands and some other variants recently addressed in the literature. We model the … Read more
Optimization methods are at the core of many problems in signal/image processing, computer vision, and machine learning. For a long time, it has been recognized that looking at the dual of an optimization problem may drastically simplify its solution. Deriving efficient strategies which jointly brings into play the primal and the dual problems is however … Read more
The Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem is a much-studied (and strongly NP-hard) combinatorial optimization problem, for which many integer programming formulations have been proposed. We present some new multi-commodity flow (MCF) formulations, and show that they dominate all of the existing ones, in the sense that their continuous relaxations yield stronger lower bounds. Moreover, we show … Read more