Samira Goudarzi

dblp:278/9080 · DBLP profile ↗
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9ranked-venue papers
0as first author
9since 2021 · last 2026
—ORCID · none

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Artificial intelligence and machine learning · 6 · 6 since 2021Theory of computation · 3 · 3 since 2021
YearPublicationVenuePosition
2026 Sample-efficient Replicable Median in Polynomial Time
abstract
Replicable algorithm design has emerged as a central notion in algorithmic stability, strengthening both differential privacy and adaptive generalization by requiring that an algorithm, with high probability, produce the same output on independent datasets when run with the same randomness. A central open problem in this area is replicable median estimation, where existing algorithms are either computationally inefficient or require sample complexity exponential in \(\log^* |\chi|\), despite a polynomial information-theoretic lower bound. We resolve this gap by reducing replicable median estimation to the replicable interior point problem, for which we present a polynomial-time algorithm with sample complexity \(\operatorname{poly}(\log^* |\chi|)\). This yields polynomial-time replicable algorithms for median estimation, PAC learning of thresholds, and distribution learning under Kolmogorov distance—addressing open problems of Impagliazzo et al. [STOC’22] in polynomial time and improving prior results of Bun et al. [STOC’23]. Our approach introduces the technique of semi-replicable recursion, which enables recursive algorithms to maintain replicability even when subproblems depend on the data, providing a new framework for efficient replicable algorithm design.
Kiarash Banihashem, Mohammad Hossein Bateni 0001, Hossein Esfandiari, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi
SODA4
2025 Dynamic Algorithms for Submodular Matching
abstract
The Maximum Submodular Matching (MSM) problem is a generalization of the classical Maximum Weight Matching (MWM) problem. In this problem, given a monotone submodular function f: 2^E → ℝ^{≥ 0} defined over subsets of edges of a graph G(V, E), we are asked to return a matching whose submodular value is maximum among all matchings in graph G(V, E). In this paper, we consider this problem in a fully dynamic setting against an oblivious adversary. In this setting, we are given a sequence 𝒮 of insertions and deletions of edges of the underlying graph G(V, E), along with an oracle access to the monotone submodular function f. The goal is to maintain a matching M such that, at any time t of sequence 𝒮, its submodular value is a good approximation of the value of the optimal submodular matching while keeping the number of operations minimal. We develop the first dynamic algorithm for the submodular matching problem, in which we maintain a matching whose submodular value is within expected (8 + ε)-approximation of the optimal submodular matching at any time t of sequence 𝒮 using expected amortized poly(log n, 1/(ε)) update time. Our approach incorporates a range of novel techniques, notably the concept of Uniform Hierarchical Caches (UHC) data structure along with its invariants, which lead to the first algorithm for fully dynamic submodular matching and may be of independent interest for designing dynamic algorithms for other problems.
Kiarash Banihashem, Leyla Biabani, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Peyman Jabbarzade, Morteza Monemizadeh
ICALP3
2025 Replicable Online pricing
abstract
We explore the concept of replicability, which ensures algorithmic consistency despite input data variations, for online pricing problems, specifically prophet inequalities and delegation. Given the crucial role of replicability in enhancing transparency in economic decision-making, we present a replicable and nearly optimal pricing strategy for prophet inequalities, achieving a sample complexity of $\textnormal{poly}(\log^* |\mathcal{X}|)$, where $\mathcal{X}$ is the ground set of distributions. Furthermore, we extend these findings to the delegation problem and establish lower bound that proves the necessity of the $\log^*|\mathcal{X}|$ dependence. En route to obtaining these results, we develop a number of technical contributions which are of independent interest. Most notably, we propose a new algorithm for a variant of the heavy hitter problem, which has a nearly linear dependence on the inverse of the heavy hitter parameter, significantly improving upon existing results which have a cubic dependence.
Kiarash Banihashem, Mohammad Hossein Bateni 0001, Hossein Esfandiari, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi
NeurIPS4
2025 Dynamic Diameter in High-Dimensions against Adaptive Adversary and Beyond
abstract
In this paper, we study the fundamental problems of maintaining the diameter and a $k$-center clustering of a dynamic point set $P \subset \mathbb{R}^d$, where points may be inserted or deleted over time and the ambient dimension $d$ is not constant and may be high. Our focus is on designing algorithms that remain effective even in the presence of an \emph{adaptive adversary}—an adversary that, at any time $t$, knows the entire history of the algorithm’s outputs as well as all the random bits used by the algorithm up to that point. We present a fully dynamic algorithm that maintains a $2$-approximate diameter with a \emph{worst-case} update time of $poly(d, \log n)$, where $n$ is the length of the stream. Our result is achieved by identifying a robust representative of the dataset that requires infrequent updates, combined with a careful deamortization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first efficient fully-dynamic algorithm for diameter in high dimensions that \emph{simultaneously} achieves a $2$-approximation guarantee and robustness against an adaptive adversary. We also give an improved dynamic $(4+\epsilon)$-approximation algorithm for the $k$-center problem, also resilient to an adaptive adversary. Our clustering algorithm achieves an amortized update time of $k^{2.5} d \cdot poly(\epsilon^{-1}, \log n)$, improving upon the amortized update time of $k^6 d \cdot poly( \epsilon^{-1}, \log n)$ by Biabani et al. [NeurIPS'24].
Kiarash Banihashem, Jeff Giliberti, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Peyman Jabbarzade, Morteza Monemizadeh
NeurIPS3
2025 Non-monotone Submodular Optimization: p-Matchoid Constraints and Fully Dynamic Setting
abstract
Submodular maximization subject to a $p$-matchoid constraint has various applications in machine learning, particularly in tasks such as feature selection, video and text summarization, movie recommendation, graph-based learning, and constraint-based optimization. We study this problem in the dynamic setting, where a sequence of insertions and deletions of elements to a $p$-matchoid $\mathcal{M}(\mathcal{V},\mathcal{I})$ occurs over time and the goal is to efficiently maintain an approximate solution. We propose a dynamic algorithm for non-monotone submodular maximization under a $p$-matchoid constraint. For a $p$-matchoid $\mathcal{M}(\mathcal{V},\mathcal{I})$ of rank $k$, defined by a collection of $m$ matroids, our algorithm guarantees a $(2p + 2\sqrt{p(p+1)} + 1 + \epsilon)$-approximate solution at any time $t$ in the update sequence, with an expected amortized query complexity of $O(\epsilon^{-3} pk^4 \log^2(k))$ per update.
Kiarash Banihashem, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Peyman Jabbarzade, Morteza Monemizadeh
NeurIPS2
2024 A Dynamic Algorithm for Weighted Submodular Cover Problem
abstract
We initiate the study of the submodular cover problem in a dynamic setting where the elements of the ground set are inserted and deleted. In the classical submodular cover problem, we are given a monotone submodular function $f : 2^{V} \to \mathbb{R}^{\ge 0}$ and the goal is to obtain a set $S \subseteq V$ that minimizes the cost subject to the constraint $f(S) = f(V)$. This is a classical problem in computer science and generalizes the Set Cover problem, 2-Set Cover, and dominating set problem among others. We consider this problem in a dynamic setting where there are updates to our set $V$, in the form of insertions and deletions of elements from a ground set $\mathcal{V}$, and the goal is to maintain an approximately optimal solution with low query complexity per update. For this problem, we propose a randomized algorithm that, in expectation, obtains a $(1-O(\epsilon), O(\epsilon^{-1}))$-bicriteria approximation using polylogarithmic query complexity per update.
Kiarash Banihashem, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Peyman Jabbarzade, Morteza Monemizadeh
ICML2
2024 Dynamic Algorithms for Matroid Submodular Maximization
abstract
Submodular maximization under matroid and cardinality constraints are classical problems with a wide range of applications in machine learning, auction theory, and combinatorial optimization. In this paper, we consider these problems in the dynamic setting where (1) we have oracle access to a monotone submodular function f : 2V → ℝ+ and (2) we are given a sequence S of insertions and deletions of elements of an underlying ground set V.
Kiarash Banihashem, Leyla Biabani, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Peyman Jabbarzade, Morteza Monemizadeh
SODA3
2023 Dynamic Constrained Submodular Optimization with Polylogarithmic Update Time
abstract
Maximizing a monotone submodular function under cardinality constraint $k$ is a core problem in machine learning and database with many basic applications, including video and data summarization, recommendation systems, feature extraction, exemplar clustering, and coverage problems. We study this classic problem in the fully dynamic model where a stream of insertions and deletions of elements of an underlying ground set is given and the goal is to maintain an approximate solution using a fast update time. A recent paper at NeurIPS’20 by Lattanzi, Mitrovic, Norouzi-Fard, Tarnawski, Zadimoghaddam claims to obtain a dynamic algorithm for this problem with a $(\frac{1}{2} -\epsilon)$ approximation ratio and a query complexity bounded by $\mathrm{poly}(\log(n),\log(k),\epsilon^{-1})$. However, as we explain in this paper, the analysis has some important gaps. Having a dynamic algorithm for the problem with polylogarithmic update time is even more important in light of a recent result by Chen and Peng at STOC’22 who show a matching lower bound for the problem – any randomized algorithm with a $\frac{1}{2}+\epsilon$ approximation ratio must have an amortized query complexity that is polynomial in $n$. In this paper, we develop a simpler algorithm for the problem that maintains a $(\frac{1}{2}-\epsilon)$-approximate solution for submodular maximization under cardinality constraint $k$ using a polylogarithmic amortized update time.
Kiarash Banihashem, Leyla Biabani, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Peyman Jabbarzade, Morteza Monemizadeh
ICML3
2023 Dynamic Non-monotone Submodular Maximization
abstract
Maximizing submodular functions has been increasingly used in many applications of machine learning, such as data summarization, recommendation systems, and feature selection. Moreover, there has been a growing interest in both submodular maximization and dynamic algorithms. In 2020, Monemizadeh and Lattanzi, Mitrovic, Norouzi-Fard, Tarnawski, and Zadimoghaddam initiated developing dynamic algorithms for the monotone submodular maximization problem under the cardinality constraint $k$. In 2022, Chen and Peng studied the complexity of this problem and raised an important open question: "\emph{Can we extend [fully dynamic] results (algorithm or hardness) to non-monotone submodular maximization?}". We affirmatively answer their question by demonstrating a reduction from maximizing a non-monotone submodular function under the cardinality constraint $k$ to maximizing a monotone submodular function under the same constraint. Through this reduction, we obtain the first dynamic algorithms to solve the non-monotone submodular maximization problem under the cardinality constraint $k$. Our algorithms maintain an $(8+\epsilon)$-approximate of the solution and use expected amortized $O(\epsilon^{-3}k^3\log^3(n)\log(k))$ or $O(\epsilon^{-1}k^2\log^3(k))$ oracle queries per update, respectively. Furthermore, we showcase the benefits of our dynamic algorithm for video summarization and max-cut problems on several real-world data sets.
Kiarash Banihashem, Leyla Biabani, Samira Goudarzi, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Peyman Jabbarzade, Morteza Monemizadeh
NeurIPS3