computer-assisted

Performance Estimation for Smooth and Strongly Convex Sets

  • Alan Luner
  • Benjamin Grimmer
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Semi-definite Programming Tags , , , , ,

    We extend recent computer-assisted design and analysis techniques for first-order optimization over structured functions–known as performance estimation–to apply to structured sets. We prove “interpolation theorems” for smooth and strongly convex sets with Slater points and bounded diameter, showing a wide range of extremal questions amount to structured mathematical programs. Prior function interpolation theorems are recovered … Read more

    Provably Faster Gradient Descent via Long Steps

  • Benjamin Grimmer
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Semi-definite Programming Tags , , , , , ,

    This work establishes provably faster convergence rates for gradient descent in smooth convex optimization via a computer-assisted analysis technique. Our theory allows nonconstant stepsize policies with frequent long steps potentially violating descent by analyzing the overall effect of many iterations at once rather than the typical one-iteration inductions used in most first-order method analyses. We … Read more