Demo Data from EDBT 2026 / reviewers in the wild / expert
Yedidya Kfir
dblp:399/9112
· DBLP profile ↗
1ranked-venue papers
1as first author
1since 2021 · last 2026
—ORCID · none
Domains — the database's venue-derived domains; a paper can count in several
Artificial intelligence and machine learning · 1 · 1 first-author · 1 since 2021Graphics, computer vision, multimedia, augmented reality and games · 1 · 1 first-author · 1 since 2021
Expertise — from the expertise taxonomy: the topics of the expert's papers under the CCF categories. A weight counts papers with recency: 1 for a paper about the topic, 0.3 when the topic is its context, halved every five years.
| Artificial intelligence
1 paper |
Optimization for machine learning · 100% | |
| Theoretical computer science
1 paper |
Mathematical optimization · 100% |
Topics — the 3 heaviest of 3, each with the papers that count most for it
| Topic | Weight | Papers | Last | Evidence papers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Machine learning › Optimization for machine learning
gradient estimation |
1.0 | 1 | 2026 | EvoGrad: Evolutionary-Weighted Gradient and Hessian Learning for Black-Box Optimization · AAAI 2026 |
Machine learning › Optimization for machine learning › second-order optimization
hessian approximation |
1.0 | 1 | 2026 | EvoGrad: Evolutionary-Weighted Gradient and Hessian Learning for Black-Box Optimization · AAAI 2026 |
Mathematical optimization
black-box optimization |
1.0 | 1 | 2026 | EvoGrad: Evolutionary-Weighted Gradient and Hessian Learning for Black-Box Optimization · AAAI 2026 |
Methods — techniques the papers use, named apart from their topics
taylor approximation · 2.0hessian estimation · 2.0evolutionary algorithm · 2.0CMA-ES · 2.0
| Year | Publication | Venue | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | EvoGrad: Evolutionary-Weighted Gradient and Hessian Learning for Black-Box OptimizationabstractBlack-box algorithms aim to optimize functions without access to their analytical structure or gradient information, making them essential when gradients are unavailable or computationally expensive to obtain. Traditional methods for black-box optimization (BBO) primarily utilize non-parametric models, but these approaches often struggle to scale effectively in large input spaces. Conversely, parametric approaches, which rely on neural estimators and gradient signals via backpropagation, frequently encounter substantial gradient estimation errors, limiting their reliability. Explicit Gradient Learning (EGL), a recent advancement, directly learns gradients using a first-order Taylor approximation and has demonstrated superior performance compared to both parametric and non-parametric methods. However, EGL inherently remains local and myopic, often faltering on highly non-convex optimization landscapes. In this work, we address this limitation by integrating global statistical insights from the evolutionary algorithm CMA-ES into the gradient learning framework, effectively biasing gradient estimates towards regions with higher optimization potential. Moreover, we enhance the gradient learning process by estimating the Hessian matrix, allowing us to correct the second-order residual of the Taylor series approximation. Our proposed algorithm, EvoGrad2 (Evolutionary Gradient Learning with second-order approximation), achieves state-of-the-art results on the synthetic COCO test suite, exhibiting significant advantages in high-dimensional optimization problems. We further demonstrate EvoGrad2's effectiveness on challenging real-world machine learning tasks, including adversarial training and code generation, highlighting its ability to produce more robust, high-quality solutions. Our results underscore EvoGrad2's potential as a powerful tool for researchers and practitioners facing complex, high-dimensional, and non-linear optimization problems. Yedidya Kfir, Elad Sarafian, Yoram Louzoun, Sarit Kraus |
AAAI | 1 |