Applications of nonlinear approximation for problems in learning theory and applied mathematics

A major pillar of approximation theory in establishing the ability of one class of functions to be represented by another. Establishing such a relationship often leads to efficient numerical approximation methods. In this work, several expressibility theorems are established and several novel numerical approximation techniques are also presented. Not only are these novel methods supported by the presented theory, but also, provided numerical experiments show that these novel methods may be applied to a wide range of applications from image compression to the solutions of high-dimensional PDE

Algorithms for Large Scale Problems in Eigenvalue and Svd Computations and in Big Data Applications

As ”big data” has increasing influence on our daily life and research activities, it poses significant challenges on various research areas. Some applications often demand a fast solution of large, sparse eigenvalue and singular value problems; In other applications, extracting knowledge from large-scale data requires many techniques such as statistical calculations, data mining, and high performance computing. In this dissertation, we develop efficient and robust iterative methods and software for the computation of eigenvalue and singular values. We also develop practical numerical and data mining techniques to estimate the trace of a function of a large, sparse matrix and to detect in real-time blob-filaments in fusion plasma on extremely large parallel computers. In the first work, we propose a hybrid two stage SVD method for efficiently and accurately computing a few extreme singular triplets, especially the ones corresponding to the smallest singular values. The first stage achieves fast convergence while the second achieves the final accuracy. Furthermore, we develop a high-performance preconditioned SVD software based on the proposed method on top of the state-of-the-art eigensolver PRIMME. The method can be used with or without preconditioning, on parallel computers, and is superior to other state-of-the-art SVD methods in both efficiency and robustness. In the second study, we provide insights and develop practical algorithms to accomplish efficient and accurate computation of interior eigenpairs using refined projection techniques in non-Krylov iterative methods. By analyzing different implementations of the refined projection, we propose a new hybrid method to efficiently find interior eigenpairs without compromising accuracy. Our numerical experiments illustrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method. In the third work, we present a novel method to estimate the trace of matrix inverse that exploits the pattern correlation between the diagonal of the inverse of the matrix and that of some approximate inverse. We leverage various sampling and fitting techniques to fit the diagonal of the approximation to that of the inverse. Our method may serve as a standalone kernel for providing a fast trace estimate or as a variance reduction method for Monte Carlo in some cases. An extensive set of experiments demonstrate the potential of our method. In the fourth study, we provide first results on applying outlier detection techniques to effectively tackle the fusion blob detection problem on extremely large parallel machines. We present a real-time region outlier detection algorithm to efficiently find and track blobs in fusion experiments and simulations. Our experiments demonstrated we can achieve linear time speedup up to 1024 MPI processes and complete blob detection in two or three milliseconds

Mechanics-Based Modeling Approach for Rapid Prediction of Low Velocity Impact Damage in Composite Laminates

A mechanics-based modeling approach is developed to rapidly predict damage in polymer matrix composites resulting from a low velocity impact event. The approach is incorporated into a computer code that provides an efficient means to assess the damage resistance for a range of material systems, layup configurations, and impact scenarios. It is envisioned that the developed approach will aid in early design and analysis of composite structures where sizing and layup decisions must be made, and evaluating the feasibility of a large number of laminate configurations using numerical approaches such as finite element analysis (FEA) is prohibitively expensive. Therefore, the goal of the modeling approach is to predict the impact damage size given the laminate configuration and impact scenario. This information can then be used to determine the residual strength of the material. To be useful in such a context, the tool is designed to run quickly (<2 minutes) to allow a large number of design cases to be investigated. The results presented demonstrate that the model is capable of efficiently predicting low velocity impact damage size, shape, and location within an acceptable accuracy suitable for preliminary design and analysis of composite structures

Novel Monte Carlo Methods for Large-Scale Linear Algebra Operations

Linear algebra operations play an important role in scientific computing and data analysis. With increasing data volume and complexity in the Big Data era, linear algebra operations are important tools to process massive datasets. On one hand, the advent of modern high-performance computing architectures with increasing computing power has greatly enhanced our capability to deal with a large volume of data. One the other hand, many classical, deterministic numerical linear algebra algorithms have difficulty to scale to handle large data sets. Monte Carlo methods, which are based on statistical sampling, exhibit many attractive properties in dealing with large volume of datasets, including fast approximated results, memory efficiency, reduced data accesses, natural parallelism, and inherent fault tolerance. In this dissertation, we present new Monte Carlo methods to accommodate a set of fundamental and ubiquitous large-scale linear algebra operations, including solving large-scale linear systems, constructing low-rank matrix approximation, and approximating the extreme eigenvalues/ eigenvectors, across modern distributed and parallel computing architectures. First of all, we revisit the classical Ulam-von Neumann Monte Carlo algorithm and derive the necessary and sufficient condition for its convergence. To support a broad family of linear systems, we develop Krylov subspace Monte Carlo solvers that go beyond the use of Neumann series. New algorithms used in the Krylov subspace Monte Carlo solvers include (1) a Breakdown-Free Block Conjugate Gradient algorithm to address the potential rank deficiency problem occurred in block Krylov subspace methods; (2) a Block Conjugate Gradient for Least Squares algorithm to stably approximate the least squares solutions of general linear systems; (3) a BCGLS algorithm with deflation to gain convergence acceleration; and (4) a Monte Carlo Generalized Minimal Residual algorithm based on sampling matrix-vector products to provide fast approximation of solutions. Secondly, we design a rank-revealing randomized Singular Value Decomposition (R3SVD) algorithm for adaptively constructing low-rank matrix approximations to satisfy application-specific accuracy. Thirdly, we study the block power method on Markov Chain Monte Carlo transition matrices and find that the convergence is actually depending on the number of independent vectors in the block. Correspondingly, we develop a sliding window power method to find stationary distribution, which has demonstrated success in modeling stochastic luminal Calcium release site. Fourthly, we take advantage of hybrid CPU-GPU computing platforms to accelerate the performance of the Breakdown-Free Block Conjugate Gradient algorithm and the randomized Singular Value Decomposition algorithm. Finally, we design a Gaussian variant of Freivalds’ algorithm to efficiently verify the correctness of matrix-matrix multiplication while avoiding undetectable fault patterns encountered in deterministic algorithms