Dual solutions in convex stochastic optimization

This paper studies duality and optimality conditions for general convex stochastic optimization problems. The main result gives sufficient conditions for the absence of a duality gap and the existence of dual solutions in a locally convex space of random variables. It implies, in particular, the necessity of scenario-wise optimality conditions that are behind many fundamental … Read more

Solving large-scale unit-commitment problems using dual dynamic programming and open-source solvers

The astonishing dimensions and complexity of power systems render them impossible to be managed without the help of cutting-edge software. Due to a lack of scalable, reliable and well documented free and open-source solutions, system operators, regulators, and government agencies often rely on proprietary software to provide them information that ultimately will be used to … Read more

Metrizing Fairness

We study supervised learning problems for predicting properties of individuals who belong to one of two demographic groups, and we seek predictors that are fair according to statistical parity. This means that the distributions of the predictions within the two groups should be close with respect to the Kolmogorov distance, and fairness is achieved by … Read more

Multi-fidelity robust controller design with gradient sampling

Robust controllers that stabilize dynamical systems even under disturbances and noise are often formulated as solutions of nonsmooth, nonconvex optimization problems. While methods such as gradient sampling can handle the nonconvexity and nonsmoothness, the costs of evaluating the objective function may be substantial, making robust control challenging for dynamical systems with high-dimensional state spaces. In … Read more

DiversiTree: A New Method to Efficiently Compute Diverse Sets of Near-Optimal Solutions to Mixed-Integer Optimization Problems

While most methods for solving mixed-integer optimization problems compute a single optimal solution, a diverse set of near-optimal solutions can often lead to improved outcomes. We present a new method for finding a set of diverse solutions by emphasizing diversity within the search for near-optimal solutions. Specifically, within a branch-and-bound framework, we investigated parameterized node … Read more

A Gauss-Newton-based Decomposition Algorithm for Nonlinear Mixed-Integer Optimal Control Problems

For the fast approximate solution of Mixed-Integer Non-Linear Programs (MINLPs) arising in the context of Mixed-Integer Optimal Control Problems (MIOCPs) a decomposition algorithm exists that solves a sequence of three comparatively less hard subproblems to determine an approximate MINLP solution. In this work, we propose a problem formulation for the second algorithm stage that is … Read more

A new sufficient condition for non-convex sparse recovery via weighted $\ell_r\!-\!\ell_1$ minimization

In this letter, we discuss the reconstruction of sparse signals from undersampled data, which belongs to the core content of compressed sensing. A new sufficient condition in terms of the restricted isometry constant (RIC) and restricted orthogonality constant (ROC) is first established for the performance guarantee of recently proposed non-convex weighted $\ell_r-\ell_1$ minimization in recovering … Read more

A level-set-based topology optimization strategy using radial basis functions and a Hilbertian velocity extension

This work addresses the structural compliance minimization problem through a level-set-based strategy that rests upon radial basis functions with compact support combined with Hilbertian velocity extensions. A consistent augmented Lagrangian scheme is adopted to handle the volume constraint. The linear elasticity model and the variational problem associated with the computation of the velocity field are … Read more

Benders-type Branch-and-Cut Algorithms for Capacitated Facility Location with Single-Sourcing

We consider the capacitated facility location problem with (partial) single-sourcing (CFLP-SS). A natural mixed integer formulation for the problem involves 0-1 variables x_j indicating whether faclility j is used or not and y_{ij} variables indicating the fraction of the demand of client i that is satisfied from facility j. When the x variables are fixed, … Read more

The Null Space Property of the Weighted $\ell_r-\ell_1$ Minimization

The null space property (NSP), which relies merely on the null space of the sensing matrix column space, has drawn numerous interests in sparse signal recovery. This article studies NSP of the weighted $\ell_r-\ell_1$ minimization. Several versions of NSP of the weighted $\ell_r-\ell_1$ minimization including the weighted $\ell_r-\ell_1$ NSP, the weighted $\ell_r-\ell_1$ stable NSP, the … Read more