Elia Zonta

Mathematics & Computer Science MIT (incoming)  ยท EPFL  ยท  Oxford  ยท  Cornell  
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Elia Zonta

I'm in the space where mathematics and computer science converge.

My path began on the practical side, HPC and GPUs and friends, gradually got pulled toward the theoretical side: stochastic processes, statistics, and machine learning (back when superintelligence wasn't a thing).

Former swimmer and e-sports player. Math brain. Now raising the bar.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
(incoming) M.S. Applied Mathematics โ€” Operations Research & Machine Learning
Graduate researcher under the supervision of Prof. Tomaso Poggio, focusing on the mathematics of deep learning and theory of intelligence.
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
Summer School on Financial Networks and Economic Complexity.
Focused on the intersection of network science, financial theory and systemic risk.
Polytechnic University of Turin
Turin, Italy
M.S. Applied Mathematics โ€” Mathematical Engineering
Coursework: Stochastic Processes, Computational Statistics, Deterministic & Stochastic Optimization.
Cornell University & University of Trento
Ithaca, NY โ€” Trento, IT
B.S. Computer Science & Engineering
Tuition merit & Research Thesis scholarship. Attended MS/PhD level computer science and math courses as a 1st & 2nd year undergraduate.
Research Assistant
Lausanne, Switzerland
EPFL โ€” Anthropic-funded project
Mechinterp ? Agents ? Knowledge Graphs ?
Quantitative Researcher & Developer
Ithaca, NY, USA
Cornell Quant Fund
Built a fully automated sports arbitrage system using Python, Selenium, and statistical modeling to scrape real-time odds from 5+ major sportsbooks, detect market inefficiencies, and execute 200+ monthly trades with a 6.2% theoretical ROI.
OS-Max โ€” Low-Latency HFT Engine (C++)
2026
A low-latency trading engine in C++20: lock-free single-producer/single-consumer ring buffers, cache-line-aligned data structures, integer-only (zero-FPU) technical indicators, and zero-copy telemetry streamed to a Python dashboard over a memory-mapped ring buffer. Runs a full tick -> bar -> indicator -> strategy -> execution pipeline across dedicated threads on simulated or replayed market data.
View Repository โ†—
Alpha Decay Predictor โ€” kdb+/q x Python HFT Research
2026
Measures how fast an order-book signal decays on real NASDAQ limit-order-book (LOBSTER) data. Microstructure feature engineering runs natively in kdb+/q, streamed to Python over a PyKX IPC bridge, with a LightGBM model per prediction horizon. Emphasis on leakage-aware evaluation โ€” purged walk-forward splits, moving-block bootstrap confidence intervals, and guards against degenerate targets and mechanical micro-price artifacts.
View Repository โ†—
Polymarket Prediction-Market Arbitrage & Maker Edge (Python)
2026
A depth- and fee-aware scanner for cross-outcome ("dutch-book") arbitrage in Polymarket's multi-outcome markets, showing that the apparent edge does not survive taker fees and real order-book depth and quantifying where the durable edge actually sits on the maker side: breakeven fill time from measured volatility, the liquidity-reward subsidy, and risk-free basket inventory netting. Built on live CLOB order books with a tested analytics core.
View Repository โ†—
Auto-Deleveraging Simulation on BTC May 2021 Flash Crash
2026
Simulation of the auto-deleveraging cascade triggered by the May 2021 flash crash on the Bitcoin market. Custom simulator for margin trading and auto-deleveraging mechanisms, focusing on replicating the dynamics of the event and analyzing systemic risk implications. Implemented in Python with detailed documentation and visualizations.
View Repository โ†—
Cornell ICPC participant 2024
Outstanding Research Thesis Scholarship - Cornell University 2024
Tuition Merit Award - UniTn & Cornell University 2022 โ€“ 2024
Math Olympiad โ€” National Finalist 2020, 2021

Languages, Frameworks & Tools

Python (PyTorch, JAX)

C/C++ (CUDA, OpenGL)

SQL

Git, Linux, Docker

...

Spoken Languages

Italian (native)

English (fluent)

Spanish (fluent)

French (basic)

German (basic)