2,425 research outputs found
An Approximate Shapley-Folkman Theorem
The Shapley-Folkman theorem shows that Minkowski averages of uniformly
bounded sets tend to be convex when the number of terms in the sum becomes much
larger than the ambient dimension. In optimization, Aubin and Ekeland [1976]
show that this produces an a priori bound on the duality gap of separable
nonconvex optimization problems involving finite sums. This bound is highly
conservative and depends on unstable quantities, and we relax it in several
directions to show that non convexity can have a much milder impact on finite
sum minimization problems such as empirical risk minimization and multi-task
classification. As a byproduct, we show a new version of Maurey's classical
approximate Carath\'eodory lemma where we sample a significant fraction of the
coefficients, without replacement, as well as a result on sampling constraints
using an approximate Helly theorem, both of independent interest.Comment: Added constraint sampling result, simplified sampling results,
reformat, et
Scaling-up Empirical Risk Minimization: Optimization of Incomplete U-statistics
In a wide range of statistical learning problems such as ranking, clustering
or metric learning among others, the risk is accurately estimated by
-statistics of degree , i.e. functionals of the training data with
low variance that take the form of averages over -tuples. From a
computational perspective, the calculation of such statistics is highly
expensive even for a moderate sample size , as it requires averaging
terms. This makes learning procedures relying on the optimization of
such data functionals hardly feasible in practice. It is the major goal of this
paper to show that, strikingly, such empirical risks can be replaced by
drastically computationally simpler Monte-Carlo estimates based on terms
only, usually referred to as incomplete -statistics, without damaging the
learning rate of Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM)
procedures. For this purpose, we establish uniform deviation results describing
the error made when approximating a -process by its incomplete version under
appropriate complexity assumptions. Extensions to model selection, fast rate
situations and various sampling techniques are also considered, as well as an
application to stochastic gradient descent for ERM. Finally, numerical examples
are displayed in order to provide strong empirical evidence that the approach
we promote largely surpasses more naive subsampling techniques.Comment: To appear in Journal of Machine Learning Research. 34 pages. v2:
minor correction to Theorem 4 and its proof, added 1 reference. v3: typo
corrected in Proposition 3. v4: improved presentation, added experiments on
model selection for clustering, fixed minor typo
Extending Gossip Algorithms to Distributed Estimation of U-Statistics
Efficient and robust algorithms for decentralized estimation in networks are
essential to many distributed systems. Whereas distributed estimation of sample
mean statistics has been the subject of a good deal of attention, computation
of -statistics, relying on more expensive averaging over pairs of
observations, is a less investigated area. Yet, such data functionals are
essential to describe global properties of a statistical population, with
important examples including Area Under the Curve, empirical variance, Gini
mean difference and within-cluster point scatter. This paper proposes new
synchronous and asynchronous randomized gossip algorithms which simultaneously
propagate data across the network and maintain local estimates of the
-statistic of interest. We establish convergence rate bounds of and
for the synchronous and asynchronous cases respectively, where
is the number of iterations, with explicit data and network dependent
terms. Beyond favorable comparisons in terms of rate analysis, numerical
experiments provide empirical evidence the proposed algorithms surpasses the
previously introduced approach.Comment: to be presented at NIPS 201
Gossip Dual Averaging for Decentralized Optimization of Pairwise Functions
In decentralized networks (of sensors, connected objects, etc.), there is an
important need for efficient algorithms to optimize a global cost function, for
instance to learn a global model from the local data collected by each
computing unit. In this paper, we address the problem of decentralized
minimization of pairwise functions of the data points, where these points are
distributed over the nodes of a graph defining the communication topology of
the network. This general problem finds applications in ranking, distance
metric learning and graph inference, among others. We propose new gossip
algorithms based on dual averaging which aims at solving such problems both in
synchronous and asynchronous settings. The proposed framework is flexible
enough to deal with constrained and regularized variants of the optimization
problem. Our theoretical analysis reveals that the proposed algorithms preserve
the convergence rate of centralized dual averaging up to an additive bias term.
We present numerical simulations on Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) maximization
and metric learning problems which illustrate the practical interest of our
approach
Clustered Multi-Agent Linear Bandits
We address in this paper a particular instance of the multi-agent linear
stochastic bandit problem, called clustered multi-agent linear bandits. In this
setting, we propose a novel algorithm leveraging an efficient collaboration
between the agents in order to accelerate the overall optimization problem. In
this contribution, a network controller is responsible for estimating the
underlying cluster structure of the network and optimizing the experiences
sharing among agents within the same groups. We provide a theoretical analysis
for both the regret minimization problem and the clustering quality. Through
empirical evaluation against state-of-the-art algorithms on both synthetic and
real data, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach: our algorithm
significantly improves regret minimization while managing to recover the true
underlying cluster partitioning.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
Communities of Practice in Landscapes of Practice
The original formulation of communities of practice primarily focused on describing how learning, meaning, and identity within a community can translate into a sustained practice. Wenger-Trayner et al. elaborated the concept of landscapes of practice to describe how different communities of practice may interact, and belong to broader landscapes of practice, rather than rely exclusively on their own local situated practices. In this conceptual article, we apply the perspective of landscapes of practice to organizations. The first part of our argument is descriptive, and is aimed at developing a model of landscapes of practice in organizations. With regard to this model, we propose that practices can be seen as multilevel, including local situated practices, generic practices, and cultural fields. This, in turn, helps to clarify and organize a number of central concepts within the practice literature. The second part of our argument is prescriptive, as we suggest that landscapes of practice call for triple-legitimization of situated learning, meaning that legitimization is not only needed at the level of community and organization, but also by attending to the dynamically changing epistemic texture of the landscapes
Knowledge Acquisition Using Group Support Systems
This paper reports on a project in which a group support system (GSS) equipped with a causal mapping facility was used to acquire knowledge from experts in seven European cities in order to understand the systemicity of risks which cities may face. The practical constraints demanded that participants’ experience and wisdom about the city risk environment was collected in a short period of time: three 1-day workshops. The acquisition of knowledge posed a number of important epistemological challenges which are explored in our discussion. The GSS was faced with the need to (1) facilitate sharing of knowledge with others, (2) manage the complexity of expert knowledge, (3) acknowledge the time demands on experts, (4) manage and merge multiple perspectives, and (5) acknowledge the subjectivity of knowledge in this domain. By discussing how the GSS process attended directly to these epistemological issues and to methodological considerations that linked to these issues, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the application of GSS for knowledge acquisition, particularly in comparison with other possible methods
Exploring GSS negotiation – the use of a GSS log
Group Decision Support Systems (GSS) have been used extensively to support groups in working together in organizations. This paper focuses on the particular type of GSS, called Group Explorer, which during the course of facilitated sessions generates data logs in the form of Excel spreadsheets. Data logs can be of high interest to researchers and GSS facilitators because they may possibly contain rich and valuable data such as about the detailed time of entry and the authorship of all contributions, or the results of voting activities conducted by participants. However, data logs may at first look complicated and difficult to read and follow. Thus the purpose of this paper is to provide a number of instructions and explanations for anyone interested in making good use of data logs, and to popularize similar analysis as a good opportunity to bet-ter understand the outcomes of GSS sessions
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