May 8th - João Mota


João Mota (IST/CMU)

Distributed Algorithms for Separable Optimization

Abstract:

In this talk we are interested in distributed algorithms for solving separable optimization problems. Many problems in engineering can be formulated as separable optimization problems, i.e., minimizing the sum of P functions subject to the intersection of P sets. Our goal is to solve such problem when the P functions and sets are not known at a single location, but rather distributed across a network with P nodes, each node having access to just one function and set. We present an algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers that requires less communications than the state-of-the-art algorithms. Applications of this work include average consensus, distributed compressed sensing and SVMs, Internet protocols, and distributed model predictive control.

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Bio: João Mota received a M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, in 2008. He is currently working towards his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, within the joint program between Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, and Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal. His research interests include distributed optimization and control, and sensor networks.

 



Instituto Superior Técnico