System-Aware Neural ODE Processes for Few-Shot Bayesian Optimization

TMLR Paper3616 Authors

02 Nov 2024 (modified: 03 Apr 2025)Decision pending for TMLREveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY 4.0
Abstract: We consider the problem of optimizing initial conditions and termination time in dynamical systems governed by unknown ordinary differential equations (ODEs), where evaluating different initial conditions is costly and the state's value can not be measured in real-time but only with a delay while the measuring device processes the sample. To identify the optimal conditions in limited trials, we introduce a few-shot Bayesian Optimization (BO) framework based on the system's prior information. At the core of our approach is the System-Aware Neural ODE Processes (SANODEP), an extension of Neural ODE Processes (NODEP) designed to meta-learn ODE systems from multiple trajectories using a novel context embedding block. We further develop a two-stage BO framework to effectively incorporate search space constraints, enabling efficient optimization of both initial conditions and observation timings. We conduct extensive experiments showcasing SANODEP's potential for few-shot BO within dynamical systems. We also explore SANODEP's adaptability to varying levels of prior information, highlighting the trade-off between prior flexibility and model fitting accuracy.
Submission Length: Regular submission (no more than 12 pages of main content)
Assigned Action Editor: ~Yutian_Chen1
Submission Number: 3616
Loading

OpenReview is a long-term project to advance science through improved peer review with legal nonprofit status. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the OpenReview Sponsors. © 2025 OpenReview