The reparameterization trick for acquisition functions
File(s)1712.00424v1.pdf (667.47 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Wilson, James T
Moriconi, Riccardo
Hutter, Frank
Deisenroth, Marc Peter
Type
Working Paper
Abstract
Bayesian optimization is a sample-efficient approach to solving global
optimization problems. Along with a surrogate model, this approach relies on
theoretically motivated value heuristics (acquisition functions) to guide the
search process. Maximizing acquisition functions yields the best performance;
unfortunately, this ideal is difficult to achieve since optimizing acquisition
functions per se is frequently non-trivial. This statement is especially true
in the parallel setting, where acquisition functions are routinely non-convex,
high-dimensional, and intractable. Here, we demonstrate how many popular
acquisition functions can be formulated as Gaussian integrals amenable to the
reparameterization trick and, ensuingly, gradient-based optimization. Further,
we use this reparameterized representation to derive an efficient Monte Carlo
estimator for the upper confidence bound acquisition function in the context of
parallel selection.
optimization problems. Along with a surrogate model, this approach relies on
theoretically motivated value heuristics (acquisition functions) to guide the
search process. Maximizing acquisition functions yields the best performance;
unfortunately, this ideal is difficult to achieve since optimizing acquisition
functions per se is frequently non-trivial. This statement is especially true
in the parallel setting, where acquisition functions are routinely non-convex,
high-dimensional, and intractable. Here, we demonstrate how many popular
acquisition functions can be formulated as Gaussian integrals amenable to the
reparameterization trick and, ensuingly, gradient-based optimization. Further,
we use this reparameterized representation to derive an efficient Monte Carlo
estimator for the upper confidence bound acquisition function in the context of
parallel selection.
Date Issued
2017-12-01
Citation
2017
Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Author(s)
Identifier
http://arxiv.org/abs/1712.00424v1
Subjects
stat.ML
stat.ML
cs.LG
math.OC
Notes
Accepted at the NIPS 2017 Workshop on Bayesian Optimization (BayesOpt 2017)