Wenqing Ouyang

I am a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in IEOR at Columbia University, working with Cédric Josz. My research is in nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization and variational analysis, with an emphasis on second-order theory and splitting/acceleration methods. Recent work characterizes Kurdyka–Łojasiewicz exponents for over-parameterized models via the Hadamard parametrization, yielding explicit local rates for gradient descent (SIAM J. Optim., 2025); establishes descent and faster decrease guarantees for Anderson-accelerated gradient with restarting (SIAM J. Optim., 2024); and develops a trust-region, normal-map-based semismooth Newton method with global convergence guarantees and q-superlinear local convergence for composite problems (Math. Programming, 2024). Ongoing projects include second-order theory for decomposable functions and Burer–Monteiro factorizability for nuclear-norm regularization.