On May 15, Tower was proud to welcome Dr. Albert Gu to our New York office for a private lecture on the future of sequence models. Dr. Gu — a professor at Carnegie Mellon, co-founder of Cartesia, and co-author of the widely cited Mamba model — has emerged as a leading figure in AI, recently named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in AI.

The session focused on State Space Models — a fast-evolving area of deep learning research — and explored how modern architectures like Mamba aim to improve the speed, efficiency, and flexibility of sequential data modeling. The discussion offered a valuable perspective on how new approaches in AI could help unlock better performance in domains that depend on fast, high-volume data processing — including trading.

Hosting events like this is a core part of Tower’s internal learning culture. We regularly bring in experts from academia and industry to share their thinking, challenge our assumptions, and help our teams stay ahead of the curve in applying cutting-edge research to real-world strategy development. This commitment to professional development and career-long learning is a key part of what defines Tower’s workplace — an environment where intellectual curiosity and growth are not just encouraged, but expected.

We’re grateful to Dr. Gu for spending time with us — and to our trading and research teams for their continued eagerness to develop their knowledge and drive to push the frontier of quantitative trading.