A Novel Gradient Methodology with Economical Objective Function Evaluations for Data Science Applications

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Varner, Christian, Patel, Vivak
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Varner, Christian
Patel, Vivak
author_facet Varner, Christian
Patel, Vivak
contents Gradient methods are experiencing a growth in methodological and theoretical developments owing to the challenges posed by optimization problems arising in data science. However, such gradient methods face diverging optimality gaps or exploding objective evaluations when applied to optimization problems with realistic properties for data science applications. In this work, we address this gap by developing a generic methodology that economically uses objective function evaluations in a problem-driven manner to prevent optimality gap divergence and avoid explosions in objective evaluations. Our methodology allows for a variety of step size routines and search direction strategies. Furthermore, we develop a particular, novel step size selection methodology that is well-suited to our framework. We show that our specific procedure is highly competitive with standard optimization methods on CUTEst test problems. We then show our specific procedure is highly favorable relative to standard optimization methods on a particularly tough data science problem: learning the parameters in a generalized estimating equation model. Thus, we provide a novel gradient methodology that is better suited to optimization problems from this important class of data science applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_10894
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Novel Gradient Methodology with Economical Objective Function Evaluations for Data Science Applications
Varner, Christian
Patel, Vivak
Optimization and Control
Computation
90C30, 65K05, 68T09
Gradient methods are experiencing a growth in methodological and theoretical developments owing to the challenges posed by optimization problems arising in data science. However, such gradient methods face diverging optimality gaps or exploding objective evaluations when applied to optimization problems with realistic properties for data science applications. In this work, we address this gap by developing a generic methodology that economically uses objective function evaluations in a problem-driven manner to prevent optimality gap divergence and avoid explosions in objective evaluations. Our methodology allows for a variety of step size routines and search direction strategies. Furthermore, we develop a particular, novel step size selection methodology that is well-suited to our framework. We show that our specific procedure is highly competitive with standard optimization methods on CUTEst test problems. We then show our specific procedure is highly favorable relative to standard optimization methods on a particularly tough data science problem: learning the parameters in a generalized estimating equation model. Thus, we provide a novel gradient methodology that is better suited to optimization problems from this important class of data science applications.
title A Novel Gradient Methodology with Economical Objective Function Evaluations for Data Science Applications
topic Optimization and Control
Computation
90C30, 65K05, 68T09
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.10894