This paper concerns some practical issues associated with the formulation of sequential quadratic programming (SQP) methods for large-scale nonlinear optimization. SQP methods find an approximate solution of a sequence of quadratic programming (QP) subproblems in which a quadratic model of the objective function is minimized subject to the linearized constraints. Extensive numerical results are given … Read more
Nonlinear optimization (NLO) per definitionem covers a vast range of problems, from trivial to practically intractable. For this reason, it is impossible to offer “guaranteed” advice to NLO software users. This fact becomes especially obvious, when facing unusually hard and/or previously unexplored NLO challenges. In the present study we offer some related practical observations, propose … Read more
The goal of this paper is to identify the most promising sets of closest assignment constraints from the literature, in order to improve mixed integer linear programming formulations for exploration of information flow within a social network. The direct comparison between proposed formulations is performed on standard single source capacitated facility location problem instances. Therefore, … Read more
The Conic Benchmark Library (CBLIB 2014) is a collection of more than a hundred conic optimization instances under a free and open license policy. It is the first extensive benchmark library for the advancing field of conic mixed-integer and continuous optimization, which is already supported by all major commercial solvers and spans a wide range … Read more
Traditionally, two variants of the L-shaped method based on Benders’ decomposition principle are used to solve two-stage stochastic programming problems: the single-cut and the multi-cut version. The concept of an oracle with on-demand accuracy was originally proposed in the context of bundle methods for unconstrained convex optimzation to provide approximate function data and subgradients. In … Read more
The state of numerical computing is currently characterized by a divide between highly efficient yet typically cumbersome low-level languages such as C, C++, and Fortran and highly expressive yet typically slow high-level languages such as Python and MATLAB. This paper explores how Julia, a modern programming language for numerical computing which claims to bridge this … Read more
Several variations of index selection rules for simplex type algorithms for linear programming, like the Last-In-First-Out or the Most-Often-Selected-Variable are rules not only theoretically finite, but also provide significant flexibility in choosing a pivot element. Based on an implementation of the primal simplex and the monotonic build-up (MBU) simplex method, the practical benefit of the … Read more
We study the runtime performance of three types of random-key genetic algorithms: the unbiased algorithm of Bean (1994); the biased algorithm of Gonçalves and Resende (2011); and a greedy version of Bean’s algorithm on 12 instances from four types of covering problems: general-cost set covering, Steiner triple covering, general-cost set K-covering, and unit-cost covering by … Read more
In this paper, we consider a first-order block-decomposition method for minimizing the sum of a convex differentiable function with Lipschitz continuous gradient, and two other proper closed convex (possibly, nonsmooth) functions with easily computable resolvents. The method presented contains two important ingredients from a computational point of view, namely: an adaptive choice of stepsize for … Read more
The problem of finding a minimum l^1-norm solution to an underdetermined linear system is an important problem in compressed sensing, where it is also known as basis pursuit. We propose a heuristic optimality check as a general tool for l^1-minimization, which often allows for early termination by “guessing” a primal-dual optimal pair based on an … Read more