Probing-Enhanced Stochastic Programming

We consider a two-stage stochastic decision problem where the decision-maker has the opportunity to obtain information about the distribution of the random variables $\xi$ that appear in the problem through a set of discrete actions that we refer to as probing. Probing components of a random vector $\eta$ that is jointly-distributed with $\xi$ allows the … Read more

Lagrangian Dual Decision Rules for Multistage Stochastic Mixed Integer Programming

Multistage stochastic programs can be approximated by restricting policies to follow decision rules. Directly applying this idea to problems with integer decisions is difficult because of the need for decision rules that lead to integral decisions. In this work, we introduce Lagrangian dual decision rules (LDDRs) for multistage stochastic mixed integer programming (MSMIP) which overcome … Read more

Non-asymptotic Results for Langevin Monte Carlo: Coordinate-wise and Black-box Sampling

Euler-Maruyama and Ozaki discretization of a continuous time diffusion process is a popular technique for sampling, that uses (upto) gradient and Hessian information of the density respectively. The Euler-Maruyama discretization has been used particularly for sampling under the name of Langevin Monte Carlo (LMC) for sampling from strongly log-concave densities. In this work, we make … Read more

Quasi-Newton Methods for Deep Learning: Forget the Past, Just Sample

We present two sampled quasi-Newton methods: sampled LBFGS and sampled LSR1. Contrary to the classical variants of these methods that sequentially build (inverse) Hessian approximations as the optimization progresses, our proposed methods sample points randomly around the current iterate to produce these approximations. As a result, the approximations constructed make use of more reliable (recent … Read more

On Sampling Rates in Simulation-Based Recursions

We consider the context of “simulation-based recursions,” that is, recursions that involve quantities needing to be estimated using a stochastic simulation. Examples include stochastic adaptations of fixed-point and gradient descent recursions obtained by replacing function and derivative values appearing within the recursion by their Monte Carlo counterparts. The primary motivating settings are Simulation Optimization and … Read more

Simple Approximations of Semialgebraic Sets and their Applications to Control

Many uncertainty sets encountered in control systems analysis and design can be expressed in terms of semialgebraic sets, that is as the intersection of sets described by means of polynomial inequalities. Important examples are for instance the solution set of linear matrix inequalities or the Schur/Hurwitz stability domains. These sets often have very complicated shapes … Read more

Sampling with respect to a class of measures arising in second-order cone optimization with rank constraints

We describe a classof measures on second-order cones as a push-forward of the Cartesian product of a probabilistic measure on positive semi-line corresponding to Gamma distribution and the uniform measure on the sphere Citationreport, Department of Mathematics, University of Notre Dame, July, 2011ArticleDownload View PDF