Seminar series
Date
Mon, 11 May 2026
Time
14:00 -
15:00
Location
Lecture Room 3
Speaker
Associate Professor Nicolas Boumal
Organisation
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - EPFL
Polyak-Łojasiewicz (PŁ) functions abound in the literature, especially in nonconvex optimization. When they are also smooth, they become surprisingly simple---with an exotic twist. The plan is for us to discover the structure of those functions and of their sets of minimizers via gradient flow and fiber bundles.
Joint work with Christopher Criscitiello and Quentin Rebjock.