Projective Splitting with Forward Steps: Asynchronous and Block-Iterative Operator Splitting

This work is concerned with the classical problem of finding a zero of a sum of maximal monotone operators. For the projective splitting framework recently proposed by Combettes and Eckstein, we show how to replace the fundamental subproblem calculation using a backward step with one based on two forward steps. The resulting algorithms have the … Read more

Computational performance of a projection and rescaling algorithm

This paper documents a computational implementation of a {\em projection and rescaling algorithm} for finding most interior solutions to the pair of feasibility problems find $x\in L\cap\mathbb{R}^n_{+} $ and find $x\in L^\perp\cap\mathbb{R}^n_{+},$ where $L$ denotes a linear subspace in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and $L^\perp$ denotes its orthogonal complement. The projection and rescaling algorithm is a recently developed … Read more

Two-stage Linear Decision Rules for Multi-stage Stochastic Programming

Multi-stage stochastic linear programs (MSLPs) are notoriously hard to solve in general. Linear decision rules (LDRs) yield an approximation of an MSLP by restricting the decisions at each stage to be an affine function of the observed uncertain parameters. Finding an optimal LDR is a static optimization problem that provides an upper bound on the … Read more

An Integrated Car-and-ride Sharing System for Mobilizing Heterogeneous Travelers with Application in Underserved Communities

The fast-growing carsharing and ride-hailing businesses are generating economic benefits and societal impacts in the modern society. However, both have limitation to cover demand from diverse populations, e.g., travelers in low-income, underserved communities. In this paper, we consider two types of travelers: Type~1 who rent shared cars and Type~2 who need shared rides. We propose … Read more

A Globally Asymptotically Stable Polynomial Vector Field with Rational Coefficients and no Local Polynomial Lyapunov Function

We give an explicit example of a two-dimensional polynomial vector field of degree seven that has rational coefficients, is globally asymptotically stable, but does not admit an analytic Lyapunov function even locally. Citation Submitted for publication Article Download View A Globally Asymptotically Stable Polynomial Vector Field with Rational Coefficients and no Local Polynomial Lyapunov Function

Data-DrivenWater Allocation under Climate Uncertainty: A Distributionally Robust Approach

This paper investigates the application of techniques from distributionally robust optimization (DRO) to water allocation under future uncertainty. Specifically, we look at a rapidly-developing area of Tucson, Arizona. Tucson, like many arid and semi-arid regions around the world, faces considerable uncertainty in its ability to provide water for its citizens in the future. The main … Read more

Multistage stochastic programs with a random number of stages: dynamic programming equations, solution methods, and application to portfolio selection

We introduce the class of multistage stochastic optimization problems with a random number of stages. For such problems, we show how to write dynamic programming equations and detail the Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming algorithm to solve these equations. Finally, we consider a portfolio selection problem over an optimization period of random duration. For several instances … Read more

The Mesh Adaptive Direct Search Algorithm for Granular and Discrete Variables

The mesh adaptive direct search (Mads) algorithm is designed for blackbox optimization problems for which the functions defining the objective and the constraints are typically the outputs of a simulation seen as a blackbox. It is a derivative-free optimization method designed for continuous variables and is supported by a convergence analysis based on the Clarke … Read more

Computing the Spark: Mixed-Integer Programming for the (Vector) Matroid Girth Problem

We investigate the NP-hard problem of computing the spark of a matrix (i.e., the smallest number of linearly dependent columns), a key parameter in compressed sensing and sparse signal recovery. To that end, we identify polynomially solvable special cases, gather upper and lower bounding procedures, and propose several exact (mixed-)integer programming models and linear programming … Read more

Optimality conditions and global convergence for nonlinear semidefinite programming

Sequential optimality conditions have played a major role in unifying and extending global convergence results for several classes of algorithms for general nonlinear optimization. In this paper, we extend theses concepts for nonlinear semidefinite programming. We define two sequential optimality conditions for nonlinear semidefinite programming. The first is a natural extension of the so-called Approximate-Karush-Kuhn-Tucker … Read more