Optimal construction of a fund of funds

We study the problem of diversifying a given initial capital over a finite number of investment funds that follow different trading strategies. The investment funds operate in a market where a finite number of underlying assets may be traded over finite discrete time. We present a numerical procedure for finding a diversification that is optimal … Read more

Stochastic programs without duality gaps

This paper studies dynamic stochastic optimization problems parametrized by a random variable. Such problems arise in many applications in operations research and mathematical finance. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of solutions and the absence of a duality gap. Our proof uses extended dynamic programming equations, whose validity is established under new relaxed conditions … Read more

Structured Sparsity via Alternating Direction Methods

We consider a class of sparse learning problems in high dimensional feature space regularized by a structured sparsity-inducing norm which incorporates prior knowledge of the group structure of the features. Such problems often pose a considerable challenge to optimization algorithms due to the non-smoothness and non-separability of the regularization term. In this paper, we focus … Read more

Optimality conditions of set-valued optimization problem involving relative algebraic interior in ordered linear spaces

In this paper, firstly, a generalized subconvexlike set-valued map involving the relative algebraic interior is introduced in ordered linear spaces. Secondly, some properties of a generalized subconvexlike set-valued map are investigated. Finally, the optimality conditions of set-valued optimization problem are established. Citation {\bf AMS 2010 Subject Classifications:} 90C26, 90C29, 90C30ArticleDownload View PDF

Hierarchical Classification via Orthogonal Transfer

We consider multiclass classification problems where the set of labels are organized hierarchically as a category tree. We associate each node in the tree with a classifier and classify the examples recursively from the root to the leaves. We propose a hierarchical Support Vector Machine (SVM) that encourages the classifier at each node of the … Read more

On the Robust Knapsack Problem

We consider an uncertain variant of the knapsack problem that arises when the exact weight of each item is not exactly known in advance but belongs to a given interval, and the number of items whose weight differs from the nominal value is bounded by a constant. We analyze the worsening of the optimal solution … Read more

A Robust Robust Optimization Result

We study the loss in objective value when an inaccurate objective is optimized instead of the true one, and show that “on average” this loss is very small, for an arbitrary compact feasible region. CitationTechnical Report 1479, School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, April 2011ArticleDownload View PDF

Global Convergence of Radial Basis Function Trust Region Derivative-Free Algorithms

We analyze globally convergent derivative-free trust region algorithms relying on radial basis function interpolation models. Our results extend the recent work of Conn, Scheinberg, and Vicente to fully linear models that have a nonlinear term. We characterize the types of radial basis functions that fit in our analysis and thus show global convergence to first-order … Read more

An Infeasible-Point Subgradient Method Using Adaptive Approximate Projections

We propose a new subgradient method for the minimization of convex functions over a convex set. Common subgradient algorithms require an exact projection onto the feasible region in every iteration, which can be efficient only for problems that admit a fast projection. In our method we use inexact adaptive projections requiring to move within a … Read more

A Simple Variant of the Mizuno-Todd-Ye Predictor-Corrector Algorithm and its Objective-Function-Free Complexity

In this paper, we propose a simple variant of the Mizuno-Todd-Ye predictor-corrector algorithm for linear programming problem (LP). Our variant executes a natural finite termination procedure at each iteration and it is easy to implement the algorithm. Our algorithm admits an objective-function free polynomial-time complexity when it is applied to LPs whose dual feasible region … Read more