On sample average approximation for two-stage stochastic programs without relatively complete recourse

We investigate sample average approximation (SAA) for two-stage stochastic programs without relatively complete recourse, i.e., for problems in which there are first-stage feasible solutions that are not guaranteed to have a feasible recourse action. As a feasibility measure of the SAA solution, we consider the “recourse likelihood”, which is the probability that the solution has … Read more

Distributionally Robust Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming

We consider a multi-stage stochastic linear program that lends itself to solution by stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP). In this context, we consider a distributionally robust variant of the model with a finite number of realizations at each stage. Distributional robustness is with respect to the probability mass function governing these realizations. We describe a … Read more

Stochastic Dynamic Cutting Plane for multistage stochastic convex programs

We introduce StoDCuP (Stochastic Dynamic Cutting Plane), an extension of the Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) algorithm to solve multistage stochastic convex optimization problems. At each iteration, the algorithm builds lower affine functions not only for the cost-to-go functions, as SDDP does, but also for some or all nonlinear cost and constraint functions. We show … Read more

Upper and Lower Bounds for Large Scale Multistage Stochastic Optimization Problems: Decomposition Methods

We consider a large scale multistage stochastic optimization problem involving multiple units. Each unit is a (small) control system. Static constraints couple units at each stage. To tackle such large scale problems, we propose two decomposition methods, whether handling the coupling constraints by prices or by resources. We introduce the sequence (one per stage) of … Read more

Upper and Lower Bounds for Large Scale Multistage Stochastic Optimization Problems: Application to Microgrid Management

We consider a microgrid where different prosumers exchange energy altogether by the edges of a given network. Each prosumer is located to a node of the network and encompasses energy consumption, energy production and storage capacities (battery, electrical hot water tank). The problem is coupled both in time and in space, so that a direct … Read more

Sample Average Approximation for Stochastic Nonconvex Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming via Outer Approximation

Stochastic mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) is a very challenging type of problem. Although there have been recent advances in developing decomposition algorithms to solve stochastic MINLPs, none of the existing algorithms can address stochastic MINLPs with continuous distributions. We propose a sample average approximation-based outer approximation algorithm (SAAOA) that can address nonconvex two-stage stochastic programs … Read more

Multi-stage robust optimization problems: A sampled scenario tree based approach

In this paper, we consider multi-stage robust convex optimization problems of the minimax type. We assume that the total uncertainty set is the cartesian product of stagewise compact uncertainty sets and approximate the given problem by a sampled subproblem. Instead of looking for the worst case among the infinite and typically uncountable set of uncertain … Read more

Duality and sensitivity analysis of multistage linear stochastic programs

In this paper we investigate the dual of a Multistage Stochastic Linear Program (MSLP) to study two related questions for this class of problems. The first of these questions is the study of the optimal value of the problem as a function of the involved parameters. For this sensitivity analysis problem, we provide formulas for … Read more

A Fully Stochastic Second-Order Trust Region Method

A stochastic second-order trust region method is proposed, which can be viewed as a second-order extension of the trust-region-ish (TRish) algorithm proposed by Curtis et al. [INFORMS J. Optim. 1(3) 200–220, 2019]. In each iteration, a search direction is computed by (approximately) solving a trust region subproblem defined by stochastic gradient and Hessian estimates. The … Read more

Bridging Bayesian and Minimax Mean Square Error Estimation via Wasserstein Distributionally Robust Optimization

We introduce a distributionally robust minimium mean square error estimation model with a Wasserstein ambiguity set to recover an unknown signal from a noisy observation. The proposed model can be viewed as a zero-sum game between a statistician choosing an estimator—that is, a measurable function of the observation—and a fictitious adversary choosing a prior—that is, … Read more