We revisit the problem of inferring the overall ranking among entities in the framework of Bradley-Terry-Luce (BTL) model, based on available empirical data on pairwise preferences. By a simple transformation, we can cast the problem as that of solving a noisy linear system, for which a ready algorithm is available in the form of the randomized Kaczmarz method. This scheme is provably convergent, has excellent empirical performance, and is amenable to on-line, distributed and asynchronous variants. Convergence, convergence rate, and error analysis of the proposed algorithm are presented and several numerical experiments are conducted whose results validate our theoretical findings.
This paper is about randomized iterative algorithms for solving a linear system of equations $X β= y$ in different settings. Recent interest in the topic was reignited when Strohmer and Vershynin (2009) proved the linear convergence rate of a Randomized Kaczmarz (RK) algorithm that works on the rows of $X$ (data points). Following that, Leventhal and Lewis (2010) proved the linear convergence of a Randomized Coordinate Descent (RCD) algorithm that works on the columns of $X$ (features). The aim of this paper is to simplify our understanding of these two algorithms, establish the direct relatio…
Worth Their Weight: Randomized and Regularized Block Kaczmarz Algorithms without Preprocessing
Department of Mathematics, UC Berkeley（数学系，加州大学伯克利分校）；Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（应用数学与计算研究部，劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）
University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学）；King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)（沙特国王 Abdullah 科技大学 (KAUST)）；MIPT（莫斯科物理技术学院）
In this paper we present a convergence rate analysis of inexact variants of several randomized iterative methods. Among the methods studied are: stochastic gradient descent, stochastic Newton, stochastic proximal point and stochastic subspace ascent. A common feature of these methods is that in their update rule a certain sub-problem needs to be solved exactly. We relax this requirement by allowing for the sub-problem to be solved inexactly. In particular, we propose and analyze inexact randomized iterative methods for solving three closely related problems: a convex stochastic quadratic optim…
Is it possible for a first-order method, i.e., only first derivatives allowed, to be quadratically convergent? For univariate loss functions, the answer is yes -- the Steffensen method avoids second derivatives and is still quadratically convergent like Newton method. By incorporating an optimal step size we can even push its convergence order beyond quadratic to $1+\sqrt{2} \approx 2.414$. While such high convergence orders are a pointless overkill for a deterministic algorithm, they become rewarding when the algorithm is randomized for problems of massive sizes, as randomization invariably c…
A Kaczmarz-inspired approach to accelerate the optimization of neural network wavefunctions
University of California, Berkeley（加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校）；The Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing（西蒙斯理论计算研究所）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）
针对神经网络波函数优化成本高的问题，提出结合 MinSR 与 Kaczmarz 方法的 SPRING 优化器，在小原子和分子上优于 MinSR 和 KFAC，显著加速达到化学精度。
Oregon State University（俄勒冈州立大学）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）
We study how the learning rate affects the performance of a relaxed randomized Kaczmarz algorithm for solving $A x \approx b + \varepsilon$, where $A x =b$ is a consistent linear system and $\varepsilon$ has independent mean zero random entries. We derive a learning rate schedule which optimizes a bound on the expected error that is sharp in certain cases; in contrast to the exponential convergence of the standard randomized Kaczmarz algorithm, our optimized bound involves the reciprocal of the Lambert-$W$ function of an exponential.
University of California, Los Angeles（加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校）
Developing large-scale distributed methods that are robust to the presence of adversarial or corrupted workers is an important part of making such methods practical for real-world problems. Here, we propose an iterative approach that is adversary-tolerant for least-squares problems. The algorithm utilizes simple statistics to guarantee convergence and is capable of learning the adversarial distributions. Additionally, the efficiency of the proposed method is shown in simulations in the presence of adversaries. The results demonstrate the great capability of such methods to tolerate different l…
Accelerated Gossip via Stochastic Heavy Ball Method
School of Mathematics, KAUST, Saudi Arabia（卡士塔大学数学学院，沙特阿拉伯）；The University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学）；The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom（英国爱丁堡大学）；Edinburgh, Scotland, UK（苏格兰爱丁堡，英国）；MIPT, Russia（莫斯科国立信息安全大学，俄罗斯）
A Note on Randomized Kaczmarz Algorithm for Solving Doubly-Noisy Linear Systems
College of Computing, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University（穆罕默德六世理工大学计算机学院）；University of Central Florida（中佛罗里达大学）；University of California, Irvine（加州大学欧文分校）
Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris（巴黎理工学院巴黎电信学院）；Université Paris-Nanterre（巴黎楠泰尔大学）
Tournament procedures, recently introduced in Lugosi & Mendelson (2016), offer an appealing alternative, from a theoretical perspective at least, to the principle of Empirical Risk Minimization in machine learning. Statistical learning by Median-of-Means (MoM) basically consists in segmenting the training data into blocks of equal size and comparing the statistical performance of every pair of candidate decision rules on each data block: that with highest performance on the majority of the blocks is declared as the winner. In the context of nonparametric regression, functions having won all th…
College of Computing, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco（穆罕默德六世理工大学计算机学院）；Department of Mathematics, University of Central Florida, USA（中央佛罗里达大学数学系）；Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, USA（加州大学伊里布分校数学系）
Phase retrieval has been an attractive but difficult problem rising from physical science, and there has been a gap between state-of-the-art theoretical convergence analyses and the corresponding efficient retrieval methods. Firstly, these analyses all assume that the sensing vectors and the iterative updates are independent, which only fits the ideal model with infinite measurements but not the reality, where data are limited and have to be reused. Secondly, the empirical results of some efficient methods, such as the randomized Kaczmarz method, show linear convergence, which is beyond existi…
RL4RLA: Teaching ML to Discover Randomized Linear Algebra Algorithms Through Curriculum Design and Graph-Based Search
Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA（杜克大学工程学院）；Department of Computer Science, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA（达特茅斯学院计算机科学系）
