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Data-Efficient Decision-Making

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Hu_cornellgrad_0058F_13566.pdf (3.67 MB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://doi.org/10.7298/0dfr-b483
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/114052
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Cornell Theses and Dissertations
Author
Hu, Yichun
Abstract

This thesis is focused on the development of sample-efficient algorithms for personalized data-driven decision-making. In particular, the dissertation aims to address the following questions in both online (sequential) and offline (batch) settings: (i) What problem structures allow for achieving instance-specific fast regret rates? (ii) How can these problem structures be leveraged to design \textit{practical} algorithms that achieve fast theoretical rates? Part I of this thesis investigates the above questions from an online perspective. Chapter 2 studies the smooth contextual bandit problem, where we use the smoothness property of the function class to design contextual bandit algorithms that interpolate between two extremes previously studied in isolation: nondifferentiable bandits and parametric-response bandits. Chapter 3 examines the DTR bandit problem, where we develop the first online algorithm with logarithmic regret for dynamic treatment regimes that involve personalized, adaptive, multi-stage treatment plans. Part II of this work delves into fast regret rates for offline problems by leveraging a probabilistic condition that measures the distribution of the reward gap between the optimal and second-optimal decisions, which we term the margin condition. In the case of contextual linear optimization, Chapter 4 shows that the naive plug-in approach actually achieves regret convergence rates that are significantly faster than methods that directly optimize downstream decision performance. In the case of offline reinforcement learning, Chapter 5 presents a finer regret analysis that characterizes the faster-than-square-root regret convergence rate we observe in practice.

Date Issued
2023-05
Committee Chair
Kallus, Nathan
Committee Member
Gurvich, Itai
Dai, Jiangang
Goldberg, David
Degree Discipline
Operations Research and Information Engineering
Degree Name
Ph. D., Operations Research and Information Engineering
Degree Level
Doctor of Philosophy
Type
dissertation or thesis
Link(s) to Catalog Record
https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/16176583

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