Minimizing Upper Confidence Bounds: A Data-Driven Framework for Stochastic Programming

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Hauptverfasser: Liu, Shixin, Gao, Ming, Hu, Jian
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Liu, Shixin
Gao, Ming
Hu, Jian
author_facet Liu, Shixin
Gao, Ming
Hu, Jian
contents Stochastic programming is often challenged by epistemic uncertainty, where critical probability distributions are poorly characterized or unknown due to a lack of data. To address this, we pioneer a novel framework for stochastic programming that minimizes an upper confidence bound (UCB) on the expected random cost, acting as a robustness-seeking strategy. Our central contribution is the Average Percentile Upper Bound (APUB), a new statistical construct that serves as both a statistically rigorous upper bound for population means and an approximate risk metric for sample means. We rigorously prove the asymptotic correctness and consistency of APUB, establishing a reliable foundation for data-driven decision-making. We also develop practical solution methods, including a bootstrap sampling approximation method and an L-shaped method, to solve APUB optimization problems, with a specific focus on two-stage linear stochastic optimization with random recourse. Empirical demonstrations on a two-stage product mix problem reveal the significant benefits of our APUB optimization framework, which fortifies the process against epistemic uncertainty while reinforcing key decision-making attributes like reliability and consistency. The implementation and source code are available at https://github.com/8Wings/APUB-Optimization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_08966
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Minimizing Upper Confidence Bounds: A Data-Driven Framework for Stochastic Programming
Liu, Shixin
Gao, Ming
Hu, Jian
Optimization and Control
Stochastic programming is often challenged by epistemic uncertainty, where critical probability distributions are poorly characterized or unknown due to a lack of data. To address this, we pioneer a novel framework for stochastic programming that minimizes an upper confidence bound (UCB) on the expected random cost, acting as a robustness-seeking strategy. Our central contribution is the Average Percentile Upper Bound (APUB), a new statistical construct that serves as both a statistically rigorous upper bound for population means and an approximate risk metric for sample means. We rigorously prove the asymptotic correctness and consistency of APUB, establishing a reliable foundation for data-driven decision-making. We also develop practical solution methods, including a bootstrap sampling approximation method and an L-shaped method, to solve APUB optimization problems, with a specific focus on two-stage linear stochastic optimization with random recourse. Empirical demonstrations on a two-stage product mix problem reveal the significant benefits of our APUB optimization framework, which fortifies the process against epistemic uncertainty while reinforcing key decision-making attributes like reliability and consistency. The implementation and source code are available at https://github.com/8Wings/APUB-Optimization.
title Minimizing Upper Confidence Bounds: A Data-Driven Framework for Stochastic Programming
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.08966