Multi-Stage Selection under Bounded Variation

We investigate a multi-stage version of the selection problem where the variation between solutions in consecutive stages is either penalized in the objective function or bounded by hard constraints. While the former problem turns out to be tractable, the complexity of the latter problem depends on the type of bounds imposed: When bounding the number … Read more

On Coupling Constraints in Pessimistic Linear Bilevel Optimization

The literature on pessimistic bilevel optimization with coupling constraints is rather scarce and it has been common sense that these problems are harder to tackle than pessimistic bilevel problems without coupling constraints. In this note, we show that this is not the case. To this end, given a pessimistic problem with coupling constraints, we derive … Read more

A new problem qualification based on approximate KKT conditions for Lipschitzian optimization with application to bilevel programming

When dealing with general Lipschitzian optimization problems, there are many problem classes where even weak constraint qualications fail at local minimizers. In contrast to a constraint qualification, a problem qualification does not only rely on the constraints but also on the objective function to guarantee that a local minimizer is a Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) point. For … Read more

Relaxation methods for pessimistic bilevel optimization

We consider a smooth pessimistic bilevel optimization problem, where the lower-level problem is convex and satisfies the Slater constraint qualification. These assumptions ensure that the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) reformulation of our problem is well-defined. We then introduce and study the (i) Scholtes, (ii) Lin and Fukushima, (iii) Kadrani, Dussault and Benchakroun, (iv) Steffensen and Ulbrich, and … Read more

Spherical Support Vector Machine for Interval-Valued Data

In this work we propose a generalization of the Spherical Support Vector Machine method, in which the separator is a sphere, applied to Interval-valued data. This type of data belongs to a more general class, known as Symbolic Data, for which features are described by sets, intervals or histograms instead of classic arrays. This paradigm … Read more

Interior-point algorithms with full Newton steps for nonsymmetric convex conic optimization

We design and analyze primal-dual, feasible interior-point algorithms (IPAs) employing full Newton steps to solve convex optimization problems in standard conic form. Unlike most nonsymmetric cone programming methods, the algorithms presented in this paper require only a logarithmically homogeneous self-concordant barrier (LHSCB) of the primal cone, but compute feasible and \(\varepsilon\)-optimal solutions to both the … Read more

Constructing QCQP Instances Equivalent to Their SDP Relaxations

General quadratically constrained quadratic programs (QCQPs) are challenging to solve as they are known to be NP-hard. A popular approach to approximating QCQP solutions is to use semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations. It is well-known that the optimal value η of the SDP relaxation problem bounds the optimal value ζ  of the QCQP from below, i.e., … Read more

A Study of First-Order Methods with a Probabilistic Relative-Error Gradient Oracle

This paper investigates the problem of minimizing a smooth function over a compact set with a probabilistic relative-error gradient oracle. The oracle succeeds with some probability, in which case it provides a relative-error approximation of the true gradient, or fails and returns an arbitrary vector, while the optimizer cannot distinguish between successful and failed queries … Read more

A Two-stage Stochastic Programming Approach for CRNA Scheduling with Handovers

We present a two-stage stochastic integer program for assigning Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to Operating Rooms (ORs) under surgery duration uncertainty. The proposed model captures the trade-offs between CRNA staffing levels, CRNA handovers and under-staffing in the ORs. Since the stochastic program includes binary variables in both stages, we present valid inequalities to tighten … Read more

Solving Decision-Dependent Robust Problems as Bilevel Optimization Problems

Both bilevel and robust optimization are established fields of mathematical optimization and operations research. However, only until recently, the similarities in their mathematical structure has neither been studied theoretically nor exploited computationally. Based on the recent results by Goerigk et al. (2025), this paper is the first one that reformulates a given strictly robust optimization … Read more