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  1. In this work, we study the online multidimensional knapsack problem (called OMdKP) in which there is a knapsack whose capacity is represented in m dimensions, each dimension could have a different capacity. Then, n items with different scalar profit values and m-dimensional weights arrive in an online manner and the goal is to admit or decline items upon their arrival such that the total profit obtained by admitted items is maximized and the capacity of knapsack across all dimensions is respected. This is a natural generalization of the classic single-dimension knapsack problem with several relevant applications such as in virtual machine allocation, job scheduling, and all-or-nothing flow maximization over a graph. We develop an online algorithm for OMdKP that uses an exponential reservation function to make online admission decisions. Our competitive analysis shows that the proposed online algorithm achieves the competitive ratio of O(log (Θ α)), where α is the ratio between the aggregate knapsack capacity and the minimum capacity over a single dimension and θ is the ratio between the maximum and minimum item unit values. We also show that the competitive ratio of our algorithm with exponential reservation function matches the lower bound up to a constant factor. 
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  2. In this paper, we study the multi-scale expert problem, where the rewards of different experts vary in different reward ranges. The performance of existing algorithms for the multi-scale expert problem degrades linearly proportional to the maximum reward range of any expert or the best expert and does not capture the non-uniform heterogeneity in the reward ranges among experts. In this work, we propose learning algorithms that construct a hierarchical tree structure based on the heterogeneity of the reward range of experts and then determine differentiated learning rates based on the reward upper bounds and cumulative empirical feedback over time. We then characterize the regret of the proposed algorithms as a function of non-uniform reward ranges and show that their regrets outperform prior algorithms when the rewards of experts exhibit non-uniform heterogeneity in different ranges. Last, our numerical experiments verify our algorithms' efficiency compared to previous algorithms. 
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  3. This paper develops competitive bidding strategies for an online linear optimization problem with inventory management constraints in both cost minimization and profit maximization settings. In the minimization problem, a decision maker should satisfy its time-varying demand by either purchasing units of an asset from the market or producing them from a local inventory with limited capacity. In the maximization problem, a decision maker has a time-varying supply of an asset that may be sold to the market or stored in the inventory to be sold later. In both settings, the market price is unknown in each timeslot and the decision maker can submit a finite number of bids to buy/sell the asset. Once all bids have been submitted, the market price clears and the amount bought/sold is determined based on the clearing price and submitted bids. From this setup, the decision maker must minimize/maximize their cost/profit in the market, while also devising a bidding strategy in the face of an unknown clearing price. We propose DEMBID and SUPBID, two competitive bidding strategies for these online linear optimization problems with inventory management constraints for the minimization and maximization setting respectively. We then analyze the competitive ratios of the proposed algorithms and show that the performance of our algorithms approaches the best possible competitive ratio as the maximum number of bids increases. As a case study, we use energy data traces from Akamai data centers, renewable outputs from NREL, and energy prices from NYISO to show the effectiveness of our bidding strategies in the context of energy storage management for a large energy customer participating in a real-time electricity market. 
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  4. This paper studies the online energy scheduling problem in a hybrid model where the cost of energy is proportional to both the volume and peak usage, and where energy can be either locally generated or drawn from the grid. Inspired by recent advances in online algorithms with Machine Learned (ML) advice, we develop parameterized deterministic and randomized algorithms for this problem such that the level of reliance on the advice can be adjusted by a trust parameter. We then analyze the performance of the proposed algorithms using two performance metrics: robustness that measures the competitive ratio as a function of the trust parameter when the advice is inaccurate, and consistency for competitive ratio when the advice is accurate. Since the competitive ratio is analyzed in two different regimes, we further investigate the Pareto optimality of the proposed algorithms. Our results show that the proposed deterministic algorithm is Pareto-optimal, in the sense that no other online deterministic algorithms can dominate the robustness and consistency of our algorithm. Furthermore, we show that the proposed randomized algorithm dominates the Pareto-optimal deterministic algorithm. Our large-scale empirical evaluations using real traces of energy demand, energy prices, and renewable energy generations highlight that the proposed algorithms outperform worst-case optimized algorithms and fully data-driven algorithms. 
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