Chutian Chen (Curtis)

I study how agents learn to research.

I’m Curtis Chen, CEO of Quanta Edge. I’m also a Ph.D. candidate at HKUST, researching AI for finance.

I’m interested in research that improves as it runs: agents exploring ideas in parallel, sharing what they learn and testing whether their methods are getting better.

Explore my research My background

01 / Perspective

Why I work on research agents.

I expect agents to do research better than the best people soon. My reasoning is that they can explore different ideas at the same time, share discoveries and keep revising how they work. Useful knowledge need not remain limited to one researcher’s time or experience.

But more experiments only help if the learning is real. I want to understand how agents can recognise a failed approach, carry a useful lesson into the next experiment and demonstrate that a change actually improves their research.

02 / Questions

What would make an agent a better researcher?

Learning how to search

I study agents that improve their research methods, so an experiment can teach them how to ask a better question next time.

Learning from each other

I’m interested in parallel searches that share useful discoveries while preserving different approaches to a problem.

Knowing what holds up

I want evaluation to distinguish a lasting improvement from a result that only looks convincing in the experiments used to find it.

03 / Publication

My work on learning to research.

arXiv · 2026

EvoQuantLab: Training-Free Dual-Loop Evolution for Auditable Quantitative Research

I’m a co-author of EvoQuantLab. The paper is one place where I explore these questions in quantitative research.

Read the paper More about my research

04 / Background

My path through research and building.

Earlier work

Before my current role, I founded Futuristic Group and led its strategy research. My earlier work included recommendation algorithms at Alibaba, reinforcement learning for FX at Graphen and out-of-distribution robustness at Megvii.

Full experience

My academic path

I’m a Ph.D. candidate at HKUST, researching AI for finance. I studied computer science at Columbia, engineering physics at Tsinghua, and economics at Peking University.

Download my CV

Quanta Edge

A trading firm that scales on compute.

Visit Quanta Edge Meet the team

I’m always glad to compare notes.

I’d like to hear from people working on agents, research methods and reliable experimentation.

Write to me