Global Search Strategies for Solving Multilinear Least-squares Problems

The multilinear least-squares (MLLS) problem is an extension of the linear least-squares problem. The difference is that a multilinear operator is used in place of a matrix-vector product. The MLLS is typically a large-scale problem characterized by a large number of local minimizers. It originates, for instance, from the design of filter networks. We present … Read more

Robust inversion, dimensionality reduction, and randomized sampling

We consider a class of inverse problems in which the forward model is the solution operator to linear ODEs or PDEs. This class admits several dimensionality-reduction techniques based on data averaging or sampling, which are especially useful for large-scale problems. We survey these approaches and their connection to stochastic optimization. The data-averaging approach is only … Read more

A stochastic multiscale model for electricity generation capacity expansion

Long-term planning for electric power systems, or capacity expansion, has traditionally been modeled using simplified models or heuristics to approximate the short-term dynamics. However, current trends such as increasing penetration of intermittent renewable generation and increased demand response requires a coupling of both the long and short term dynamics. We present an efficient method for … Read more

Efficient Solutions for the Far From Most String Problem

Computational molecular biology has emerged as one of the most exciting interdisciplinary fields. It has currently benefited from concepts and theoretical results obtained by different scientific research communities, including genetics, biochemistry, and computer science. In the past few years it has been shown that a large number of molecular biology problems can be formulated as … Read more

Global Stability Analysis of Fluid Flows using Sum-of-Squares

This paper introduces a new method for proving global stability of fluid flows through the construction of Lyapunov functionals. For finite dimensional approximations of fluid systems, we show how one can exploit recently developed optimization methods based on sum-of-squares decomposition to construct a polynomial Lyapunov function. We then show how these methods can be extended … Read more

Numerical estimation of the relative entropy of entanglement

We propose a practical algorithm for the calculation of the relative entropy of entanglement(REE), defined as the minimum relative entropy between a state and the set of states with positive partial transpose. Our algorithm is based on a practical semi-definite cutting plane approach. In low dimensions the implementation of the algorithm in MATLAB provides an … Read more

A quasi-Newton projection method for nonnegatively constrained image deblurring

In this paper we present a quasi-Newton projection method for image deblurring. The mathematical problem is a constrained minimization problem, where the objective function is a regularization function and the constraint is the positivity of the solution. The regularization function is a sum of the Kullback-Leibler divergence, used to minimize the error in the presence … Read more

Optimizing the Layout of Proportional Symbol Maps: Polyhedra and Computation

Proportional symbol maps are a cartographic tool to assist in the visualization and analysis of quantitative data associated with specific locations, such as earthquake magnitudes, oil well production, and temperature at weather stations. As the name suggests, symbol sizes are proportional to the magnitude of the physical quantities that they represent. We present two novel … Read more

A Non-monotonic Method for Large-scale Nonnegative Least Squares

We present a new algorithm for nonnegative least-squares (NNLS). Our algorithm extends the unconstrained quadratic optimization algorithm of Barzilai and Borwein (BB) (J. Barzilai and J. M. Borwein; Two-Point Step Size Gradient Methods. IMA J. Numerical Analysis; 1988.) to handle nonnegativity constraints. Our extension diff ers in several basic aspects from other constrained BB variants. The … Read more

Prediction Range Estimation from Noisy Raman Spectra

Inferences need to be drawn in biological systems using experimental multivariate data. The number of samples collected in many such experiments is small, and the data is noisy. We present and study the performance of a robust optimization (RO) model for such situations. We adapt this model to generate a minimum and a maximum estimation … Read more