Optimization and

Gradient Descent
INFO-4604, Applied Machine Learning
University of Colorado Boulder

September 11, 2018

Prof. Michael Paul
Prediction Functions
Remember: a prediction function is the
function that predicts what the output should be,
given the input.
Prediction Functions
Linear regression:

f(x) = wTx + b

Linear classification (perceptron):

f(x) = 1, wTx + b ≥ 0
-1, wTx + b < 0

Need to learn what w should be!

Learning Parameters
Goal is to learn to minimize error
• Ideally: true error
• Instead: training error

The loss function gives the training error when

using parameters w, denoted L(w).
• Also called cost function
• More general: objective function
(in general objective could be to minimize or maximize;
with loss/cost functions, we want to minimize)
Learning Parameters
Goal is to minimize loss function.

How do we minimize a function?

Let’s review some math.
Rate of Change
The slope of a line is also called the
rate of change of the line.
y = ½x + 1

“rise”

“run”
Rate of Change
For nonlinear functions, the “rise over run”
formula gives you the average rate of
change between two points

Average slope from

x=-1 to x=0 is:
f(x) = x2 -1
Rate of Change
There is also a concept of rate of change at
individual points (rather than two points)

Slope at x=-1 is:

f(x) = x2 -2
Rate of Change
The slope at a point is called the derivative
at that point

Intuition:
f(x) = x2 Measure the slope
between two points
that are really close
together
Rate of Change
The slope at a point is called the derivative at that
point
Intuition: Measure the slope between two points that
are really close together

f(x + c) – f(x)
c
f(x)

Limit as c goes to zero f(x+c)

Maxima and Minima
Whenever there is a peak in the data, this is a
maximum

The global maximum is the highest peak in the

entire data set, or the largest f(x) value the
function can output

A local maximum is any peak, when the rate of

change switches from positive to negative
Maxima and Minima
Whenever there is a trough in the data, this is a
minimum

The global minimum is the lowest trough in the

entire data set, or the smallest f(x) value the
function can output

A local minimum is any trough, when the rate of

change switches from negative to positive
Maxima and Minima

From:&https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/functions8maxima8minima.html

All global maxima and minima are also local

maxima and minima
Derivatives
The derivative of f(x) = x2 is 2x
Other ways of writing this:
f’(x) = 2x
d/dx [x2] = 2x
df/dx = 2x

The derivative is also a function! It depends on the

value of x.
• The rate of change is different at different points
Derivatives
The derivative of f(x) = x2 is 2x
f(x) f’(x)
Derivatives
How to calculate a derivative?
• Not going to do it in this class.

Some software can do it for you.

• Wolfram Alpha
Derivatives
What if a function has multiple arguments?

Ex: f(x1, x2) = 3x1 + 5x2

df/dx1 = 3 + 5x2 The derivative “with respect to” x1

df/dx2 = 3x1 + 5 The derivative “with respect to” x2
These two functions are called partial derivatives.
The vector of all partial derivatives for a function f is
called the gradient of the function:
∇f(x1, x2) = < df/dx1 , df/dx2 >
From:&http://mathinsight.org/directional_derivative_gradient_introduction
From:&http://mathinsight.org/directional_derivative_gradient_introduction
From:&http://mathinsight.org/directional_derivative_gradient_introduction
Finding Minima
The derivative is zero at any local maximum or
minimum.
Finding Minima
The derivative is zero at any local maximum or
minimum.

One way to find a minimum: set f’(x)=0 and solve

for x.

f(x) = x2
f’(x) = 2x
f’(x) = 0 when x = 0, so minimum at x = 0
Finding Minima
The derivative is zero at any local maximum or
minimum.

One way to find a minimum: set f’(x)=0 and solve

for x.
• For most functions, there isn’t a way to solve this.
• Instead: algorithmically search different values of x until
you find one that results in a gradient near 0.
Finding Minima
If the derivative is positive, the function is
increasing.
• Don’t move in that direction, because you’ll be
moving away from a trough.

If the derivative is negative, the function is

decreasing.
• Keep going, since you’re getting closer to a
trough
Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
At x=-1, the function is
decreasing as x gets larger.
This is what we want, so
let’s make x larger.
Increase x by the size of the
gradient:
-1 + 2 = 1
Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
At x=-1, the function is
decreasing as x gets larger.
This is what we want, so
let’s make x larger.
Increase x by the size of the
gradient:
-1 + 2 = 1
Finding Minima

f’(1) = 2
At x=1, the function is
increasing as x gets larger.
This is not what we want, so
let’s make x smaller.
Decrease x by the size of
the gradient:
1 - 2 = -1
Finding Minima

f’(1) = 2
At x=1, the function is
increasing as x gets larger.
This is not what we want, so
let’s make x smaller.
Decrease x by the size of
the gradient:
1 - 2 = -1
Finding Minima

We will keep jumping

between the same two
points this way.

We can fix this be using a

learning rate or step size.
Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
x += 2η =
Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
x += 2η =

Let’s use η = 0.25.

Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
x = -1 + 2(.25) = -0.5
Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
x = -1 + 2(.25) = -0.5
f’(-0.5) = -1
x = -0.5 + 1(.25) = -0.25
Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
x = -1 + 2(.25) = -0.5
f’(-0.5) = -1
x = -0.5 + 1(.25) = -0.25
f’(-0.25) = -0.5
x = -0.25 + 0.5(.25) = -0.125
Finding Minima

f’(-1) = -2
x = -1 + 2(.25) = -0.5
f’(-0.5) = -1
x = -0.5 + 1(.25) = -0.25
f’(-0.25) = -0.5
x = -0.25 + 0.5(.25) = -0.125

Eventually we’ll reach x=0.

Gradient Descent
1. Initialize the parameters w to some guess
(usually all zeros, or random values)
2. Update the parameters:
w = w – η ∇L(w)
3. Update the learning rate η
(How? Later…)
4. Repeat steps 2-3 until ∇L(w) is close to zero.
Gradient Descent
Gradient descent is guaranteed to eventually find
a local minimum if:
• the learning rate is decreased appropriately;
• a finite local minimum exists (i.e., the function
doesn’t keep decreasing forever).
Gradient Ascent
What if we want to find a local maximum?

Same idea, but the update rule moves the

parameters in the opposite direction:
w = w + η ∇L(w)
Learning Rate
In order to guarantee that the algorithm will
converge, the learning rate should decrease over
time. Here is a general formula.

At iteration t:

ηt = c1 / (ta + c2),
where 0.5 < a < 2
c1 > 0
c2 ≥ 0
Stopping Criteria
For most functions, you probably won’t get the
gradient to be exactly equal to 0 in a reasonable
amount of time.

Once the gradient is sufficiently close to 0, stop

trying to minimize further.

How do we measure how close a gradient is to 0?

Distance
A special case is the distance between a
point and zero (the origin).

k
d(p, 0) = √ (pi)2
i=1

This is called the Euclidean norm of p

• A norm is a measure of a vector’s length
• The Euclidean norm is also called the L2 norm
Distance
A special case is the distance between a
point and zero (the origin).

k
d(p, 0) = √ (pi)2
i=1

Also written: ||p||

Stopping Criteria
Stop when the norm of the gradient is below some
threshold, θ:

||∇L(w)|| < θ

Common values of θ are around .01, but if it is

taking too long, you can make the threshold larger.
Gradient Descent
1. Initialize the parameters w to some guess
(usually all zeros, or random values)
2. Update the parameters:
w = w – η ∇L(w)
η = c1 / (ta + c2)
3. Repeat step 2 until ||∇L(w)|| < θ or until the
maximum number of iterations is reached.
Revisiting Perceptron
In perceptron, you increase the weights if they
were an underestimate and decrease if they
were an overestimate.

wj += η (yi – f(xi)) xij

This looks similar to the gradient descent rule.

• Is it? We’ll come back to this.
Adaline
Similar algorithm to perceptron (but uncommon):

Predictions use the same function:

f(x) = 1, wTx ≥ 0
-1, wTx < 0

(here the bias b is folded into the weight vector w)

Adaline
Perceptron minimizes the number of errors.

Adaline instead tries to make wTx close to the

correct value (1 or -1, even though wTx can be
any real number).

Loss function for Adaline:

N
L(w) = (yi – wTxi)2 This is called the squared error.
i=1 (This is the same loss function
used for linear regression.)
Adaline
What is the derivative of the loss?
N
L(w) = (yi – wTxi)2
i=1
N
dL/dwj = -2 xij (yi – wTxi)
i=1
Adaline
The gradient descent algorithm for Adaline
updates each feature weight using the rule:
N
wj += η 2 xij (yi – wTxi)
i=1

Two main differences from perceptron:

• (yi – wTxi) is a real value, instead of a binary value
(perceptron either correct or incorrect)
• The update is based on the entire training set,
instead of one instance at a time.
Adaline
The gradient descent algorithm for Adaline
updates each feature weight using the rule:
N
wj += η 2 xij (yi – wTxi)
i=1

Two main differences from perceptron:

• (yi – wTxi) is a real value, instead of a binary value
(perceptron either correct or incorrect)
• The update is based on the entire training set,
instead of one instance at a time.
Stochastic Gradient Descent
A variant of gradient descent makes updates
using an approximate of the gradient that is only
based on one instance at a time.

Li(w) = (yi – wTxi)2

dLi/dwj = -2 xij (yi – wTxi)

Stochastic Gradient Descent
General algorithm for SGD:

1. Iterate through the instances in a random order

a) For each instance xi, update the weights based on
the gradient of the loss for that instance only:
w = w – η ∇Li(w; xi)

The gradient for one instance’s loss is an

approximation to the true gradient
• stochastic = random
The expected gradient is the true gradient
Adaline
The gradient descent algorithm for Adaline
updates each feature weight using the rule:
N
wj += η 2 xij (yi – wTxi)
i=1

Two main differences from perceptron:

• (yi – wTxi) is a real value, instead of a binary value
(perceptron either correct or incorrect)
• The update is based on the entire training set,
instead of one instance at a time.
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise

The derivative here is 0.

No gradient descent
updates if the prediction
was correct.
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise

The derivative here is –yixij.

If xij is positive, dLi/wj will be
negative when yi is positive,
so the gradient descent
update will be positive.
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise

This means the

classifier made an
underestimate, so The derivative here is –yixij.
perceptron makes If xij is positive, dLi/wj will be
the weights larger. negative when yi is positive,
so the gradient descent
update will be positive.
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise

The derivative here is –yixij.

If xij is positive, dLi/wj will be
positive when yi is negative,
so the gradient descent
update will be negative.
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise

The derivative doesn’t

actually exist at this point
(the function isn’t smooth)
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise
A subgradient is a
generalization of the
gradient for points that are
not differentiable.
0 and -yixij are both valid
subgradients at this point.
Revisiting Perceptron
Perceptron has a different loss function:

Li(w; xi) = 0, yi (wTxi) ≥ 0

- yi (wTxi), otherwise

Perceptron is a stochastic gradient descent algorithm

using this loss function (and using the subgradient
instead of gradient)
Convexity
How do you know if you’ve found the global
minimum, or just a local minimum?

A convex function has only one minimum:

Convexity
How do you know if you’ve found the global
minimum, or just a local minimum?

A convex function has only one minimum:

Convexity
A concave function has only one maximum:

Sometimes people use “convex” to mean either

convex or concave
Convexity
Squared error is a convex loss function, as is the
perceptron loss.

Note: convexity means there

is only one minimum value,
but there may be multiple
parameters that result in
that minimum value.
Summary
Most machine learning algorithms are some
combination of a loss function + an algorithm for
finding a local minimum.
• Gradient descent is a common minimizer, but there
are others.

With most of the common classification

algorithms, there is only one global minimum,
and gradient descent will find it.
• Most often: supervised functions are convex,
unsupervised functions are non-convex.
Summary
1. Initialize the parameters w to some guess
(usually all zeros, or random values)
2. Update the parameters:
w = w – η ∇L(w)
η = c1 / (ta + c2)
3. Repeat step 2 until ||∇L(w)|| < θ or until the
maximum number of iterations is reached.