11,782 research outputs found
A Lower Bound for the Optimization of Finite Sums
This paper presents a lower bound for optimizing a finite sum of
functions, where each function is -smooth and the sum is -strongly
convex. We show that no algorithm can reach an error in minimizing
all functions from this class in fewer than iterations, where is a
surrogate condition number. We then compare this lower bound to upper bounds
for recently developed methods specializing to this setting. When the functions
involved in this sum are not arbitrary, but based on i.i.d. random data, then
we further contrast these complexity results with those for optimal first-order
methods to directly optimize the sum. The conclusion we draw is that a lot of
caution is necessary for an accurate comparison, and identify machine learning
scenarios where the new methods help computationally.Comment: Added an erratum, we are currently working on extending the result to
randomized algorithm
Crowd-ML: A Privacy-Preserving Learning Framework for a Crowd of Smart Devices
Smart devices with built-in sensors, computational capabilities, and network
connectivity have become increasingly pervasive. The crowds of smart devices
offer opportunities to collectively sense and perform computing tasks in an
unprecedented scale. This paper presents Crowd-ML, a privacy-preserving machine
learning framework for a crowd of smart devices, which can solve a wide range
of learning problems for crowdsensing data with differential privacy
guarantees. Crowd-ML endows a crowdsensing system with an ability to learn
classifiers or predictors online from crowdsensing data privately with minimal
computational overheads on devices and servers, suitable for a practical and
large-scale employment of the framework. We analyze the performance and the
scalability of Crowd-ML, and implement the system with off-the-shelf
smartphones as a proof of concept. We demonstrate the advantages of Crowd-ML
with real and simulated experiments under various conditions
Nonparametric causal effects based on incremental propensity score interventions
Most work in causal inference considers deterministic interventions that set
each unit's treatment to some fixed value. However, under positivity violations
these interventions can lead to non-identification, inefficiency, and effects
with little practical relevance. Further, corresponding effects in longitudinal
studies are highly sensitive to the curse of dimensionality, resulting in
widespread use of unrealistic parametric models. We propose a novel solution to
these problems: incremental interventions that shift propensity score values
rather than set treatments to fixed values. Incremental interventions have
several crucial advantages. First, they avoid positivity assumptions entirely.
Second, they require no parametric assumptions and yet still admit a simple
characterization of longitudinal effects, independent of the number of
timepoints. For example, they allow longitudinal effects to be visualized with
a single curve instead of lists of coefficients. After characterizing these
incremental interventions and giving identifying conditions for corresponding
effects, we also develop general efficiency theory, propose efficient
nonparametric estimators that can attain fast convergence rates even when
incorporating flexible machine learning, and propose a bootstrap-based
confidence band and simultaneous test of no treatment effect. Finally we
explore finite-sample performance via simulation, and apply the methods to
study time-varying sociological effects of incarceration on entry into
marriage
Stochastic Optimization of PCA with Capped MSG
We study PCA as a stochastic optimization problem and propose a novel
stochastic approximation algorithm which we refer to as "Matrix Stochastic
Gradient" (MSG), as well as a practical variant, Capped MSG. We study the
method both theoretically and empirically
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