Physical device optimization with reduced computational latency via low-rank objectives

At least one non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a machine, will cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

• receiving an initial description of a physical device that describes structural parameters of the physical device within a simulated environment;
• performing an operational simulation of the physical device within the simulated environment in response to an excitation source to determine a performance metric of the physical device;
• performing an adjoint simulation by backpropagating a placeholder metric through the simulated environment to determine a loss gradient;
• updating the loss gradient, determined from the adjoint simulation with the placeholder metric, based, at least in part, on a loss metric, wherein the loss metric is based on a difference between the performance metric, determined from the operational simulation, and a target performance metric of the physical device;
• computing a structural gradient based, at least in part, on the loss gradient, wherein the structural gradient corresponds to an influence of changes in the structural parameters on the loss metric;
• and
• generating a revised description of the physical device by updating the structural parameters based on the structural gradient to reduce the loss metric.