​Quantum AI Hackathon

​Hedge Fund Applications — HFT, Mid-Frequency Trading & AI Foundation Models

​Presented by Berkeley Gateway Accelerator, XpyQ, Oakland Hardware Meetup, and Informal Spaces:

​Introduction

​The next generation of quantitative finance isn't classical. U.S. quant funds posted their worst momentum selloff in three years in early 2026 — down 2.8% in two weeks. The quantum-AI risk hedge platform market is growing at 28.5% CAGR toward $10.71B by 2030, and the window to build domain expertise before institutional standardization closes in 2–3 years.

​The Quantum AI Hackathon is an intensive weekend challenge assembling quant researchers, quantum algorithm engineers, ML practitioners, and AI model builders to prototype next-generation trading systems. Real quantum hardware credits. Live financial datasets. Four frontier tracks. Real baselines to beat.

​At this event, participants will:

• ​Prototype quantum-enhanced trading systems using IBM Quantum, IonQ, AWS Braket, and D-Wave hardware credits

• ​Fine-tune financial AI foundation models including Chronos, TimesFM, and Kronos on real market data

• ​Compete across four tracks spanning HFT, mid-frequency alpha generation, risk & compliance, and AI foundation models

• ​Present to a panel of hedge fund and quantum computing industry judges

• ​Network with sponsors, investors, and peers at a formal awards dinner the following Wednesday

​PLEASE NOTE: Ready to join? Register via Luma and submit application to reserve your place at the hackathon here.

​Who Is This For?

​For Quant Researchers & Algorithmic Traders

​Classical factor crowding is structurally fragile — quantum-enhanced strategies address regime failure from angles classical models can't reach. Build systems that outperform classical baselines on real metrics: Sharpe ratio, CVaR, information coefficient, and execution P&L.

• ​Track 01 · High-Frequency Execution — QRL agents on live LOB data. Beat the LSTM/Transformer baseline.

• ​Track 02 · Mid-Frequency Alpha Generation — QAOA/VQE portfolio optimization across 50–500 assets. Beat Markowitz + CVXPY.

• ​Track 03 · Risk & Regulatory Compliance — Hybrid CVaR circuits + quantum Monte Carlo. Beat classical historical VaR.

• ​Track 04 · AI Foundation Models (cross-cutting) — Fine-tune Chronos, TimesFM, or Kronos, or deploy an agentic LLM pipeline. Beat zero-shot generic TSFMs.

​For Quantum Engineers & ML Practitioners

​Build hybrid quantum-classical systems against real financial data — not toy benchmarks. Full access to IBM Quantum (Heron chip), IonQ, AWS Braket, and D-Wave alongside PyTorch, JAX, LangChain, and LlamaIndex. Results judged by industry professionals who care about reproducible outcomes.

​For Investors & Hedge Fund Guests

​McKinsey estimates 50% of major financial institutions will deploy hybrid quantum trading systems by 2028. This event is a live preview of the teams building that future. Join as an observer, judge, or sponsor. The formal awards dinner the following Wednesday is designed to let industry guests engage with top teams on their own schedule.

​Agenda

​📍 Berkeley Gateway HQ — Downtown Berkeley

​Prep Week — 7 Days Prior · Async via Slack

• ​Monday — Market microstructure primer: LOB dynamics, tick data, order types

• ​Tuesday — Quantum computing primer: QAOA, VQE, QUBO, NISQ-era constraints

• ​Wednesday — AI foundation models for finance: Chronos, TimesFM, Kronos, fine-tuning vs. zero-shot

• ​Thursday — Quantum ML: QRL, QSVM, VQC, quantum kernel methods

• ​Friday — Dataset access, API keys (IBM Quantum, Alpaca, Polygon.io), track briefings

​Arrive Saturday with environments configured and classical baselines already running.

​Day 1 — Saturday · 9 AM – 9 PM · 12-Hour Build Sprint

• ​9:00 AM — Opening keynote: Quantum + AI for Hedge Funds — The 2026 Landscape

• ​10:00 AM — Track briefings, team formation, dataset distribution

• ​10:30 AM — Build Block 1: Core algorithm prototyping, quantum circuit design, model architecture

• ​1:30 PM — Lunch + mentor office hours

• ​2:00 PM — Build Block 2: Backtesting, benchmarking, hyperparameter tuning

• ​5:30 PM — Checkpoint demos (5 min per team, non-judged) + mentor feedback

• ​6:00 PM — Build Block 3: Integration, result validation, final documentation

• ​9:00 PM — Code freeze. All repositories locked.

​Day 2 — Sunday · 9 AM – 12:30 PM · Presentations

• ​9:00 AM — Final submission upload + presentation setup

• ​9:30 AM — Team presentations: 10-min demo + 5-min judge Q&A per team

• ​12:00 PM — Judge deliberation (closed session)

• ​12:30 PM — Participants dismissed. Scores sealed until award dinner.

​Following Wednesday Evening · Formal Awards Dinner (Location to be announced)

• ​6:30 PM — Reception & networking with participants, judges, sponsors, and hedge fund guests

• ​7:15 PM — Dinner service

• ​7:30 PM — Keynote: The State of Quantum-AI in Finance — Where We Go From Here

• ​8:00 PM — Track highlight presentations: top team per track, 5-min showcase

• ​8:30 PM — Results announcement & awards

• ​9:00 PM — Closing remarks and sponsor recognition

• ​9:15 PM — Open networking

​

​Awards

• ​🥇 Grand Prize — Best overall project across all tracks & exclusive invite to Formal Awards dinner

• ​🥈 Runner-Up — Second overall & exclusive invite to Formal Awards dinner

• ​🏅 Track Champions ×4 — Best project per track: HFT, MFT, Risk & Compliance, AI Foundation Models

• ​⚛️ Quantum Advantage Award — Most rigorous demonstration of quantum speedup or accuracy lift over classical baseline

• ​🤖 Best Foundation Model — Most impactful FinTSFM or agentic LLM deployment

• ​💡 Most Creative Approach — Judges' discretionary prize for novel problem framing

​Partner Organizations

​Berkeley Gateway Accelerator — Venture accelerator focused on frontier capital and emerging deep tech technology commercialization, based in Downtown Berkeley.

​XpyQ — Building next-generation quantum-AI infrastructure for quantitative finance applications.

​Oakland Hardware Meetup — Community of hardware engineers, makers, and builders advancing hands-on technical collaboration across the Bay Area.

​Informal Spaces — Flexible venue and community infrastructure for technical events, workshops, and collaborative builds.

​Infrastructure

​⚛️ Quantum Hardware & SDKs

• ​IBM Quantum (Heron chip) · IonQ · AWS Braket · D-Wave

• ​Qiskit · PennyLane · Amazon Braket SDK · D-Wave Ocean

​🤖 AI & Foundation Models

• ​Chronos · TimesFM · Lag-Llama · Kronos · MOIRAI-2

• ​LangChain · LlamaIndex · Hugging Face Transformers

​📊 Classical ML & Data

• ​PyTorch · TensorFlow · scikit-learn · JAX

• ​Polygon.io · Alpaca Markets · yFinance · Simulated LOB tick feeds

​⚡ Execution Simulation

• ​Backtrader · Zipline-reloaded · Custom HFT sandbox

​
📌 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀, 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱:

1️⃣ Register on Luma to reserve your seat
2️⃣ Submit your application so we can match you to the right track and team

Spots are limited to approx. 10 teams. Apply early.

🔗 Register: https://luma.com/8q0dr4um
📋 Apply: https://lnkd.in/g3s_Xxm2

​Prep materials distributed one week prior via Slack · IP participation agreement required at registration