Many real-world decision-making problems can be modeled as network design problems, especially on networks with capacity requirements on links. In network design problems, decisions are made on installation of flow transfer capacities on the links and routing of flow from a set of source nodes to a set of sink nodes through the links. Many … Read more
Regularized empirical risk minimization problem with linear predictor appears frequently in machine learning. In this paper, we propose a new stochastic primal-dual method to solve this class of problems. Different from existing methods, our proposed methods only require O(1) operations in each iteration. We also develop a variance-reduction variant of the algorithm that converges linearly. … Read more
A general enhancement of the Benders’ decomposition (BD) algorithm can be achieved through the improved use of large neighbourhood search heuristics within mixed-integer programming solvers. While mixed-integer programming solvers are endowed with an array of large neighbourhood search heuristics, few, if any, have been designed for BD. Further, typically the use of large neighbourhood search … Read more
We consider a version of the knapsack problem in which an item size is random and revealed only when the decision maker attempts to insert it. After every successful insertion the decision maker can choose the next item dynamically based on the remaining capacity and available items, while an unsuccessful insertion terminates the process. We … Read more
We consider combinatorial optimization problems with uncertainty in the cost vector. Recently a novel approach was developed to deal such uncertainties: instead of a single one robust solution, obtained by solving a min max problem, the authors consider a set of solutions obtained by solving a min max min problem. In this new approach the … Read more
The sparse portfolio selection problem is one of the most famous and frequently-studied problems in the optimization and financial economics literatures. In a universe of risky assets, the goal is to construct a portfolio with maximal expected return and minimum variance, subject to an upper bound on the number of positions, linear inequalities and minimum … Read more
An optimization approach is proposed to construct sparse portfolios with mean-reverting price behaviors. Our objectives are threefold: (i) design a multi-asset long-short portfolio that best fits an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process in terms of maximum likelihood, (ii) select portfolios with desirable characteristics of high mean reversion and low variance though penalization, and (iii) select a parsimonious portfolio … Read more
In this study we discuss the use of the simplex method to solve allocation problems whose flow matrices are doubly stochastic. Although these problems can be solved via a 0-1 integer programming method, H.W. Kuhn [4] suggested the use of linear programming in addition to the Hungarian method. Specifically, we use the Birkhoff’s theorem to … Read more
In this paper, we demonstrate how to learn the objective function of a decision-maker while only observing the problem input data and the decision-maker’s corresponding decisions over multiple rounds. Our approach is based on online learning and works for linear objectives over arbitrary feasible sets for which we have a linear optimization oracle. As such, … Read more
We propose a decomposition algorithm for multistage stochastic programming that resembles the progressive hedging method of Rockafellar and Wets, but is provably capable of several forms of asynchronous operation. We derive the method from a class of projective operator splitting methods fairly recently proposed by Combettes and Eckstein, significantly expanding the known applications of those … Read more