The Industry Mentors played a crucial role in the success of this inaugural event. Unlike the judges, who had just 10 minutes to evaluate each team during the final pitch presentations, the mentors spent extended time with the teams over the two-day hackathon, guiding them as they tailored their solutions for real-world applications. Each team had at least one mentor, providing hands-on support and insights.

The mentors’ feedback is particularly valuable because they are seasoned industry professionals and understand the complexities of applying AI and big data to asset management. Their endorsement is a testament to the talent and potential of this new generation in tackling real asset management challenges. Many mentors shared their positive impressions informally, and we later invited them to provide public feedback for our website.

Below, you’ll find comments from those mentors who agreed to share their thoughts on the event and the participants’ accomplishments. Their insights give a unique perspective on how well the teams addressed the challenge and the impact this talent can have on the future of asset management.

“I was a coach in this first year edition of the hackathon and from my vantage point I found it was a great initiative well executed. I am proud to have been part of it. I would have dreamed as a student in quantitative methods to have the opportunity to participate in this type of event.

I proposed to the team I was coaching to publicly discuss their investment thesis, process and implementation. Building a random forest EPS surprise prediction with a Hidden Markov model regime detection and alpha based dynamic weighting (that was designed and coded during the competition) take talent, an understanding of financial markets and a good dose of courage and stamina. What the McGillians team produced is absolutely worth advertising.”

Pierre-Philippe Ste-Marie

Visiting Researcher
Bodhi Research Group

“I had the pleasure and privilege of participating in the first asset management hackathon as a mentor to the Quantum Alpha team. I would like to thank all the organizers for the quality of the event and the level of the preselected teams.

Quantum Alpha, the team I had the privilege of coaching, showed a learning curve in the field of portfolio management that was quite impressive given the time allowed to finish the competition. They applied highly advanced machine learning models to build better return expectations and tried to implement robust and diversified portfolio construction approaches. I am proud of the results achieved by the Quantum Alpha team and remain confident that this experience will help them in their professional and academic careers.”

Sofiane Tafat, Ph.D.

Senior Advisor, Quantitative Research
Research and Responsible Investment Department
Desjardins Group

“I had the privilege of mentoring Team Alpine Edge during the inaugural McGill-FIAM Asset Management Hackathon. Alpine Edge was comprised of students from different institutions, studying different disciplines, and from varied backgrounds. I witnessed the team come together under intense competitive and time pressures to deliver an impressive end product.

As a portfolio manager of North American small and mid cap equity mandates, I know well both the opportunities and constraints inherent in less liquid markets. Team Alpine Edge’s approach synthesized macroeconomic, sectoral, and stock specific considerations to deliver a model that generated compelling stock picks, portfolios, and risk-adjusted returns. Moreover, the team’s recognition of the need to limit turnover and manage position sizes to respect liquidity limitations lent credibility regarding the practicality of their approach.

While I was officially a mentor in the Hackathon, I felt I learned as much from the team as they did from me. I am proud of the effort they put forth and know that they will grow from the experiences garnered in this event.”

Stephen Hui, CFA

Partner & Portfolio Manager
Pembroke Management Ltd.

“Being a coach at the event was an incredibly rewarding experience, offering the opportunity to witness brilliant students working hard to develop creative and impactful quantitative solutions. Their energy, originality, and dedication were truly inspiring.

I had the privilege of working with two teams. First, I served as the main coach for Phidox. The team combined a variety of innovative ideas, such as incorporating LLM-based opinions into portfolio positions and using genetic algorithms for feature selection. I was particularly impressed with the genetic algorithm component—it was not only well-coded but also demonstrated strong potential as a viable solution for feature selection in the field. In fact, I plan to explore the merits of this approach further in my own research. What stood out most about Phidox was their eagerness to learn, coupled with a clear focus on delivering practical and valuable outcomes.

My second engagement was as a co-coach with SOTA, and I was genuinely impressed by the sheer amount of work they accomplished. Their solution integrated at least six major components, each thoughtfully executed: time-series feature creation, causal inference for feature selection, a tree-based panel model, Black-Litterman adjustments, robust optimization, and the use of LLMs and 10-Q/10-K filings for feature extraction. Delving into the details made me realize that their grasp of key challenges in the field far exceeded my expectations of their maturity on each subjects, reflecting the exceptional quality of the candidates

Very proud of what both team were able to produced and I believe not much more would have been needed to be able to end up in that top 3…Next time !”

Olivier Gandouet

Vice President Quantitative Equity
TD Asset Management

« J’ai eu le privilège de participer en tant que mentor venant de l’industrie lors du hackathon de gestion d’actifs, où j’ai encadré l’équipe QUARCC. Leur motivation et leur engagement étaient évidents dès le début de la compétition. Les membres de QUARCC ont non seulement démontré une solide compréhension théorique, mais ils ont également fait preuve d’une créativité remarquable dans l’élaboration de leur modèle.

Les membres de l’équipe sont les fondateurs du Quantitative Research and Competitions Club (QUARCC) à l’université Concordia. Ils ont l’intention d’utiliser les gains de ce hackathon pour financer les activités futures du club.

Je suis extrêmement fier des résultats qu’ils ont obtenus, remportant la deuxième place de la compétition. Leur attitude exemplaire et leur esprit d’équipe me laissent confiant que cette expérience sera un atout précieux dans leurs carrières professionnelles et académiques. »

Louis-Philippe Bonenfant

Analyste principal, Gestion fondamentale systématique
CDPQ