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PUBLISHED
2025/2026
M07 TORINO

Optimization over networks and collaborative learning

Instructors
Bahman Gharesifard

Bahman Gharesifard

Queen’s university

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Julien Hendrickx

Julien Hendrickx

UCLouvain

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About This Module

This course surveys decentralization in the context of optimization and learning, with focus on modern directions in large-scale machine learning. We begin with an overview of decentralization in optimization, presenting classical techniques alongside recent communication-efficient methods, where optimization is carried out through structured local updates and fixed communication protocols. In particular, we cover some stochastic and adaptive methods. We then develop some fundamental limits for distributed computation, highlighting oracle and communication lower bounds, and present some principled and automated analysis frameworks for deriving worst-case performance guarantees and guide the design of efficient methods. An important theme is non-convex optimization, with applications to in decentralized and federated settings, where stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and adaptive variants are analyzed under heterogeneity, asynchrony, and partial participation. We study convergence guarantees, variance-reduced methods, and adaptive gradient strategies, connecting them to the practice of federated learning across devices with limited resources. The last part of the course is devoted to robustness and resiliency, addressing Byzantine failures, adversarial models, and privacy-preserving mechanisms critical for federated and edge learning. Detailed Information will be provided on https://gharesifard.github.io/eeci/index.html Outline 1. Decentralization in optimization and learning: an overview of the state-of-the-art 2. Fundamental limits in distributed computations and optimization 3. Focus classical decentralized deterministic technique 4. Focus on adaptive gradient method 5. Focus on stochastic method 6. Automated and principled approach to worst-case analysis 7. Robustness and resiliency in distributed optimization

What You'll Learn

This module provides comprehensive training in the latest industry practices and methodologies. You'll gain hands-on experience with real-world projects and case studies.

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Module Details

Duration

April 19, 2026 - April 23, 2026

5 days

Location

Politecnico di Torino

Torino, Italy

Campus Information

Address: Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24

10129 Torino, Italy

Email: politecnicoditorino@pec.polito.it

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