Achieving Diversity in Objective Space for Sample-efficient Search of Multiobjective Optimization Problems
This addresses the need for efficient exploration of good solutions in costly scientific and engineering optimizations, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing multi-objective optimization approaches.
The paper tackled the problem of sample-efficient multi-objective optimization in expensive applications like materials design by proposing a method to search for diverse outcomes meeting user criteria instead of explicitly optimizing the Pareto frontier, resulting in a robust pool of design solutions.
Efficiently solving multi-objective optimization problems for simulation optimization of important scientific and engineering applications such as materials design is becoming an increasingly important research topic. This is due largely to the expensive costs associated with said applications, and the resulting need for sample-efficient, multiobjective optimization methods that efficiently explore the Pareto frontier to expose a promising set of design solutions. We propose moving away from using explicit optimization to identify the Pareto frontier and instead suggest searching for a diverse set of outcomes that satisfy user-specified performance criteria. This method presents decision makers with a robust pool of promising design decisions and helps them better understand the space of good solutions. To achieve this outcome, we introduce the Likelihood of Metric Satisfaction (LMS) acquisition function, analyze its behavior and properties, and demonstrate its viability on various problems.