A note on the ergodic convergence of symmetric alternating proximal gradient method

We consider the alternating proximal gradient method (APGM) proposed to solve a convex minimization model with linear constraints and separable objective function which is the sum of two functions without coupled variables. Inspired by Peaceman-Rachford splitting method (PRSM), a nature idea is to extend APGM to the symmetric alternating proximal gradient method (SAPGM), which can … Read more

Hybrid Constructive Heuristics for the Critical Node Problem

We consider the Critical Node Problem: given an undirected graph and an integer number K, at most K nodes have to be deleted from the graph in order to minimize a connectivity measure in the residual graph. We combine the basic steps used in common greedy algorithms with some flavour of local search, in order … Read more

Regret Analysis of Block Coordinate Gradient Methods for Online Convex Programming

In this paper, we propose two block coordinate gradient (BCG) methods for the online convex programming: the BCG method with the cyclic rule and the BCG method with the random rule. The proposed methods solve a low dimensional problem at each iteration, and hence they are efficient for large scale problems. For the proposed methods, … Read more

An optimization-based method for feature ranking in nonlinear regression problems

In this work we consider the feature ranking problem where, given a set of training instances, the task is to associate a score to the features in order to assess their relevance. Feature ranking is a very important tool for decision support systems, and may be used as an auxiliary step of feature selection to … Read more

A trust-funnel method for nonlinear optimization problems with general nonlinear constraints and its application to derivative-free optimization

A trust-funnel method is proposed for solving nonlinear optimization problems with general nonlinear constraints. It extends the one presented by Gould and Toint (Math. Prog., 122(1):155-196, 2010), originally proposed for equality-constrained optimization problems only, to problems with both equality and inequality constraints and where simple bounds are also considered. As the original one, our method … Read more

A Semi-Infinite Programming Approach for Distributionally Robust Reward-Risk Ratio Optimization with Matrix Moments Constraints

Reward-risk ratio optimization is an important mathematical approach in finance. In this paper, we revisit the model by considering a situation where an investor does not have complete information on the distribution of the underlying uncertainty and consequently a robust action is taken against the risk arising from ambiguity of the true distribution. We propose … Read more

Trust-region methods without using derivatives: Worst case complexity and the non-smooth case

Trust-region methods are a broad class of methods for continuous optimization that found application in a variety of problems and contexts. In particular, they have been studied and applied for problems without using derivatives. The analysis of trust-region derivative-free methods has focused on global convergence, and they have been proved to generate a sequence of … Read more

Single-Commodity Robust Network Design with Finite and Hose Demand Sets

We study a single-commodity Robust Network Design problem (sRND) defined on an undirected graph. Our goal is to determine minimum cost capacities such that any traffic demand from a given uncertainty set can be satisfied by a feasible single-commodity flow. We consider two ways of representing the uncertainty set, either as a finite list of … Read more

Computing the Maximum Volume Inscribed Ellipsoid of a Polytopic Projection

We introduce a novel scheme based on a blending of Fourier-Motzkin elimination (FME) and adjustable robust optimization techniques to compute the maximum volume inscribed ellipsoid (MVE) in a polytopic projection. It is well-known that deriving an explicit description of a projected polytope is NP-hard. Our approach does not require an explicit description of the projection, … Read more

Object-Parallel Infrastructure for Implementing First-Order Methods, with an Example Application to LASSO

We describe the design of a C++ vector-manipulation substrate that allows first-order optimization algorithms to be expressed in a concise and readable manner, yet still achieve high performance in parallel computing environments. We use standard object-oriented techniques of encapsulation and operator overloading, combined with a novel “symbolic temporaries” delayed-evaluation system that greatly reduces the overhead … Read more