Mildly Overparameterized ReLU Networks on Orthogonal Data: Incremental Learning and Implicit Bias

The successful training of neural networks hinges on the use of first order optimization methods, yet the theoretical characterization of these methods remains incomplete. This is especially true in settings with mild overparameterization. In this work, we study the gradient flow dynamics of two-layer ReLU networks from small initialization with orthogonal training data. We prove the limiting flow converges to a saddle-to-saddle jump process as the initialization scale tends to zero, revealing an incremental learning phenomenon in which a new neuron activates at each saddle. This analysis recovers the known result of Dana et al. (2025, arXiv:2502.16977) that the network interpolates the training data with high probability as soon as $m \gtrsim \log(n)$, where $m$ is the network width and $n$ is the number of training samples. This incremental process characterization also allows us to derive a novel implicit bias result: the learned interpolator has a squared $\ell_2$-norm scaling as $\sqrt{n}$, which is within a constant factor of the minimal $\ell_2$-norm interpolator. More broadly, our work provides the first rigorous proof of an incremental learning process for ReLU networks, whilst suggesting mildly overparameterized networks can converge to interpolating solutions whose complexity is of the same order as that of the optimal interpolator.

Bayesian Optimisation: Which Constraints Matter?

Bayesian optimisation has proven to be a powerful tool for expensive global black-box optimisation problems. In this paper, we propose new Bayesian optimisation variants of the popular Knowledge Gradient acquisition functions for problems with \emph{decoupled} black-box constraints, in which subsets of the objective and constraint functions may be evaluated independently. In particular, our methods aim to take into account that often only a handful of the constraints may be binding at the optimum, and hence we should evaluate only relevant constraints when trying to optimise a function. We empirically benchmark these methods against existing methods and demonstrate their superiority over the state-of-the-art.