Education

• B.S. in Computer Engineering (Salutatorian), Bilkent University. 2012-2017
• Ph.D in Computer and Communication Sciences, EPFL. 09/2017 - 08/2023
• Postdoc at IFML, UT Austin. 11/2023 - Present

Publications

Adaptive and Optimal Second-order Optimistic Methods for Minimax Optimization

R. Jiang, A. Kavis, Q. Jin, S. Sanghavi, A. Mokhtari. arXiv.

Advancing the lower bounds: An accelerated, stochastic, second-order method with optimal adaptation to inexactness

A. Agafonov, D. Kamzolov, A. Gasnikov, A. Kavis, K. Antonakopoulos, V. Cevher, M. Takáč. ICLR 2024.

Universal Gradient Methods for Stochastic Convex Optimization

A. Rodomanov, A. Kavis, Y. Wu, K. Antonakopoulos, V. Cevher. ICML 2024.

Alternation makes the adversary weaker in two-player games

V. Cevher, A. Cutkosky, A. Kavis, G. Piliouras, S. Skoulakis, L. Viano. NeurIPS 2023.

Adaptive Stochastic Variance Reduction for Non-convex Finite-Sum Minimization

A. Kavis*, S. Skoulakis*, K. Antonakopoulos, L. T. Dadi, V. Cevher. NeurIPS 2022.

Extra-Newton: A First Approach to Noise-Adaptive Accelerated Second-Order Methods

K. Antonakopoulos*, A. Kavis*, V. Cevher. NeurIPS 2022.

High Probability Bounds for a Class of Non-convex Algorithms with AdaGrad Stepsize

A. Kavis, K. Y. Levy, V. Cevher. ICLR 2022.

STORM+: Fully Adaptive SGD with Recursive Momentum for Nonconvex Optimization

K. Y. Levy, A. Kavis, V. Cevher. NeurIPS 2021.

Sifting through the noise: Universal first-order methods for stochastic variational inequalities

K. Antonakopoulos, T. Pethick, A. Kavis, P. Mertikopoulos, V. Cevher. NeurIPS 2021.

On the almost sure convergence of stochastic gradient descent in non-convex problems

P. Mertikopoulos, N. Hallak, A. Kavis, V. Cevher. NeurIPS 2020.

Double-Loop Unadjusted Langevin Algorithm

P. T. Y. Rolland, A. Eftekhari, A. Kavis, V. Cevher. ICML 2020.

UniXGrad: A Universal, Adaptive Algorithm with Optimal Guarantees for Constrained Optimization

A. Kavis∗, K. Y. Levy∗, F. Bach, V. Cevher. NeurIPS 2019.

Efficient learning of smooth probability functions from Bernoulli tests with guarantees

P. T. Y. Rolland, A. Kavis, A. Immer, A. Singla, V. Cevher. ICML 2019.

Mirrored Langevin Dynamics

Y. Hsieh, A. Kavis, P. Rolland, V. Cevher. NeurIPS 2018.

Professional experience

• Research Assistant at EPFL, Switzerland. 09/2017 - 08/2023
  • School of Computer and Communication Sciences
  • Supervisor: Volkan Cevher
• Tutorial at EUSIPCO 2021. 01/2021
  • Adaptive Optimization Methods for Machine Learning and Signal Processing
  • Lecturers: Ali Kavis, Ahmet Alacaoglu, Kfir Levy, Volkan Cevher
• Minisymposium at SIAM OP23. 05/2023
  • Adaptivity and Universality: First-order Methods and Beyond
  • Organizers: Volkan Cevher, Ali Kavis, Kimon Antonakopoulos

Honors and Awards

• Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc.Mobility Research Grant (CHF 120K), 2023-2025
• EPFL IC Doctoral Studies Fellowship, 2017-2018
• Spotlight Paper at NeurIPS, 2018 & 2019
• Travel Award at Neurips, 2019
• Comprehensive Scholarship (Tuition waiver with monthly stipend), Bilkent University, 2012-2017

Professional Service

• Reviewer:
  • NeurIPS
  • ICML
  • COLT
  • Springer Machine Learning
  • IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Programming Skills

• Python, PyTorch, C/C++, MATLAB