Optimization techniques are at the core of data science, including data analysis and machine learning. An understanding of basic optimization techniques and their fundamental properties provides important grounding for students, researchers, and practitioners in these areas. This text covers the fundamentals of optimization algorithms in a compact, self-contained way, focusing on the techniques most relevant to data science. An introductory chapter demonstrates that many standard problems in data science can be formulated as optimization problems. Next, many fundamental methods in optimization are described and analyzed, including: gradient and accelerated gradient methods for unconstrained optimization of smooth (especially convex) functions; the stochastic gradient method, a workhorse algorithm in machine learning; the coordinate descent approach; several key algorithms for constrained optimization problems; algorithms for minimizing nonsmooth functions arising in data science; foundations of the analysis of nonsmooth functions and optimization duality; and the back-propagation approach, relevant to neural networks.

Computational and theoretical open problems in optimization, computational geometry, data science, logistics, statistics, supply chain modeling, and data analysis are examined in this book. Each contribution provides the fundamentals needed to fully comprehend the impact of individual problems. Current theoretical, algorithmic, and practical methods used to circumvent each problem are provided to stimulate a new effort towards innovative and efficient solutions. Aimed towards graduate students and researchers in mathematics, optimization, operations research, quantitative logistics, data analysis, and statistics, this book provides a broad comprehensive approach to understanding the significance of specific challenging or open problems within each discipline. The contributions contained in this book are based on lectures focused on “Challenges and Open Problems in Optimization and Data Science” presented at the Deucalion Summer Institute for Advanced Studies in Optimization, Mathematics, and Data Science in August 2016.

DATA ANALYSIS, OPTIMIZATION, AND SIMULATION MODELING, 4e, International Edition is a teach-by-example approach, learner-friendly writing style, and complete Excel integration focusing on data analysis, modeling, and spreadsheet use in statistics and management science. The Premium Online Content Website (accessed by a unique code with every new book) includes links to the following add-ins: the Palisade Decision Tools Suite (@RISK, StatTools, PrecisionTree, TopRank, RISKOptimizer, NeuralTools, and Evolver); and SolverTable, allowing users to do sensitivity analysis. All of the add-ins is revised for Excel 2007 and notes about Excel 2010 are added where applicable.

The main objective of this book is to provide the necessary background to work with big data by introducing some novel optimization algorithms and codes capable of working in the big data setting as well as introducing some applications in big data optimization for both academics and practitioners interested, and to benefit society, industry, academia, and government. Presenting applications in a variety of industries, this book will be useful for the researchers aiming to analyses large scale data. Several optimization algorithms for big data including convergent parallel algorithms, limited memory bundle algorithm, diagonal bundle method, convergent parallel algorithms, network analytics, and many more have been explored in this book.

This volume brings together the main results in the field of Bayesian Optimization (BO), focusing on the last ten years and showing how, on the basic framework, new methods have been specialized to solve emerging problems from machine learning, artificial intelligence, and system optimization. It also analyzes the software resources available for BO and a few selected application areas. Some areas for which new results are shown include constrained optimization, safe optimization, and applied mathematics, specifically BO's use in solving difficult nonlinear mixed integer problems. The book will help bring readers to a full understanding of the basic Bayesian Optimization framework and gain an appreciation of its potential for emerging application areas. It will be of particular interest to the data science, computer science, optimization, and engineering communities.

Connecting theory with practice, this systematic and rigorous introduction covers the fundamental principles, algorithms and applications of key mathematical models for high-dimensional data analysis. Comprehensive in its approach, it provides unified coverage of many different low-dimensional models and analytical techniques, including sparse and low-rank models, and both convex and non-convex formulations. Readers will learn how to develop efficient and scalable algorithms for solving real-world problems, supported by numerous examples and exercises throughout, and how to use the computational tools learnt in several application contexts. Applications presented include scientific imaging, communication, face recognition, 3D vision, and deep networks for classification. With code available online, this is an ideal textbook for senior and graduate students in computer science, data science, and electrical engineering, as well as for those taking courses on sparsity, low-dimensional structures, and high-dimensional data. Foreword by Emmanuel Candès.

An up-to-date account of the interplay between optimization and machine learning, accessible to students and researchers in both communities. The interplay between optimization and machine learning is one of the most important developments in modern computational science. Optimization formulations and methods are proving to be vital in designing algorithms to extract essential knowledge from huge volumes of data. Machine learning, however, is not simply a consumer of optimization technology but a rapidly evolving field that is itself generating new optimization ideas. This book captures the state of the art of the interaction between optimization and machine learning in a way that is accessible to researchers in both fields. Optimization approaches have enjoyed prominence in machine learning because of their wide applicability and attractive theoretical properties. The increasing complexity, size, and variety of today's machine learning models call for the reassessment of existing assumptions. This book starts the process of reassessment. It describes the resurgence in novel contexts of established frameworks such as first-order methods, stochastic approximations, convex relaxations, interior-point methods, and proximal methods. It also devotes attention to newer themes such as regularized optimization, robust optimization, gradient and subgradient methods, splitting techniques, and second-order methods. Many of these techniques draw inspiration from other fields, including operations research, theoretical computer science, and subfields of optimization. The book will enrich the ongoing cross-fertilization between the machine learning community and these other fields, and within the broader optimization community.