FirstQFM CTO delivers keynote at inaugural Economic Data Science Society conference

FirstQFM CTO Isaiah Hull delivered a keynote at the inaugural Economic Data Science Society (EDSS) conference, hosted by Banque de France in Paris on July 9–10, 2026. The conference brought together researchers, central banks, technology companies, and other institutions working across economics and data science.

Hull’s talk, “Quantum Computing for Economic Data Science,” focused on where quantum computing may become useful in economic and financial applications. He covered areas including forecasting, risk and pricing, market monitoring, payment systems, infrastructure, and large-scale numerical problems, while distinguishing between longer-term algorithmic gains and methods that can be tested on current hardware.

The presentation also examined the practical constraints shaping near-term quantum computing, including noise, error correction, circuit depth, hardware scale, and the cost of obtaining useful samples.

A final section focused on quantum reservoir computing (QRC), a hybrid approach that uses quantum dynamics to generate features while keeping training classical. Hull discussed why QRC is well suited to near-term hardware, particularly for forecasting and other time-series tasks, and presented FirstQFM’s work on foundation model-based QRC for enterprise and institutional applications.

The EDSS program also featured keynote speakers from the University of Pennsylvania, University College London, Stanford, and GDELT, alongside research presentations spanning monetary policy, financial stability, labor markets, forecasting, artificial intelligence, and alternative data.

View the conference page at Banque de France