A comparison of general-purpose optimization algorithms forfinding optimal approximate experimental designs

Several common general purpose optimization algorithms are compared for findingA- and D-optimal designs for different types of statistical models of varying complexity,including high dimensional models with five and more factors. The algorithms of interestinclude exact methods, such as the interior point method, the Nelder–Mead method, theactive set method, the sequential quadratic programming, and metaheuristic algorithms,such as particle swarm optimization, simulated annealing and genetic algorithms.Several simulations are performed, which provide general recommendations on theutility and performance of each method, including hybridized versions of metaheuristicalgorithms for finding optimal experimental designs. A key result is that general-purposeoptimization algorithms, both exact methods and metaheuristic algorithms, perform wellfor finding optimal approximate experimental designs

d-QPSO: A Quantum-Behaved Particle Swarm Technique for Finding D-Optimal Designs With Discrete and Continuous Factors and a Binary Response

Identifying optimal designs for generalized linear models with a binary response can be a challengingtask, especially when there are both discrete and continuous independent factors in the model. Theoreticalresults rarely exist for such models, and for the handful that do, they usually come with restrictive assumptions.In this article, we propose the d-QPSO algorithm, a modified version of quantum-behaved particleswarm optimization, to find a variety of D-optimal approximate and exact designs for experiments withdiscrete and continuous factors and a binary response. We show that the d-QPSO algorithm can efficientlyfind locally D-optimal designs even for experiments with a large number of factors and robust pseudo-Bayesian designs when nominal values for the model parameters are not available. Additionally, we investigaterobustness properties of the d-QPSO algorithm-generated designs to variousmodel assumptions andprovide real applications to design a bio-plastics odor removal experiment, an electronic static experiment,and a 10-factor car refueling experiment. Supplementary materials for the article are available online

Adaptive grid semidefinite programming for finding optimal designs

We find optimal designs for linear models using anovel algorithm that iteratively combines a semidefinite programming(SDP) approach with adaptive grid techniques.The proposed algorithm is also adapted to find locally optimaldesigns for nonlinear models. The search space is firstdiscretized, and SDP is applied to find the optimal designbased on the initial grid. The points in the next grid set arepoints that maximize the dispersion function of the SDPgeneratedoptimal design using nonlinear programming. Theprocedure is repeated until a user-specified stopping rule isreached. The proposed algorithm is broadly applicable, andwe demonstrate its flexibility using (i) models with one ormore variables and (ii) differentiable design criteria, suchas A-, D-optimality, and non-differentiable criterion like Eoptimality,including the mathematically more challengingcasewhen theminimum eigenvalue of the informationmatrixof the optimal design has geometric multiplicity larger than 1. Our algorithm is computationally efficient because it isbased on mathematical programming tools and so optimalityis assured at each stage; it also exploits the convexity of theproblems whenever possible. Using several linear and nonlinearmodelswith one or more factors, we showthe proposedalgorithm can efficiently find optimal designs