===== SGD-QN: Careful Quasi-Newton Stochastic Gradient Descent ===== //Abstract//: The SGDQN algorithm is a stochastic gradient descent algorithm that makes careful use of second-order information and splits the parameter update into independently scheduled components. Thanks to this design, SGDQN iterates nearly as fast as a first-order stochastic gradient descent but requires less iterations to achieve the same accuracy. This algorithm won the "Wild Track" of the first PASCAL Large Scale Learning Challenge. //Errata//: Please see section [[#Errata]] below. Antoine Bordes, Léon Bottou and Patrick Gallinari: **SGD-QN: Careful Quasi-Newton Stochastic Gradient Descent**, //Journal of Machine Learning Research//, 10:1737--1754, July 2009. [[http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/papers/v10/bordes09a.html|JMLR Link]] [[http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/papers/v11/bordes10a.html|JMLR Erratum]]    [[http://leon.bottou.org/publications/djvu/jmlr-2009.djvu|jmlr-2009.djvu]] [[http://leon.bottou.org/publications/pdf/jmlr-2009.pdf|jmlr-2009.pdf]] [[http://leon.bottou.org/publications/psgz/jmlr-2009.ps.gz|jmlr-2009.ps.gz]] @article{bordes-bottou-gallinari-2009, author = {Bordes, Antoine and Bottou, L\'{e}on and Gallinari, Patrick}, title = {SGD-QN: Careful Quasi-Newton Stochastic Gradient Descent}, journal = {Journal of Machine Learning Research}, year = {2009}, volume = {10}, pages = {1737--1754}, month = {July}, url = {http://leon.bottou.org/papers/bordes-bottou-gallinari-2009}, } ==== Implementation ==== The complete source code of [[http://webia.lip6.fr/~bordes/mywiki/doku.php?id=sgdqn|LibSGDQN]] is available on [[http://webia.lip6.fr/~bordes/mywiki/doku.php|Antoine's]] web site. This source code comes with a script that replicates the experiments discussed in this paper. ==== Appendix ==== The appendix contains a derivation of upper and lower bounds on the asymptotic convergence speed of stochastic gradient algorithm. The constants are exact in the case of second order stochastic gradient. ==== Errata ==== The SGDQN algorithm as described in this paper contains a subtle flaw described in a subsequent [[:papers:bordes-2010|erratum]]. There is a missing 1/2 factor in the bounds of theorem 1. \[ \def\w{\mathbf{w}} {\frac{1}{2}} \frac{{\mathrm tr}(\mathbf{HBGB})}{2\lambda_{\max}-1}\,t^{-1} + {\mathrm o}(t^{-1}) ~\leq~ \mathbb{E}_{\sigma}\big[\:{\cal P}_n(\w_t)-{\cal P}_n(\w^*_n)\:\big] ~\leq~ {\frac{1}{2}} \frac{{\mathrm tr}(\mathbf{HBGB})}{2\lambda_{\min}-1}\,t^{-1} + {\mathrm o}(t^{-1}) \] The version of the paper found on this site contains the correct theorem and proof.