Dev Opportunity Radar #22: $50K Basis Fellowship, Perplexity AI Research Fellowship, and FC Barcelona Analytics Hackathon

This is a weekly series where I share opportunities, resources, communities, and interesting finds that I come across, with the goal of helping people discover things they might otherwise miss.

This week's edition features the Basis Fellowship, offering $50,000 to selected fellows working across different fields; More Than a Hack 2027, a football analytics hackathon using real FC Barcelona match data; and the Perplexity Research Fellowship, a full-time AI research program that is still accepting applications on a rolling basis, even though its priority consideration deadline has passed.

I'm also sharing Harness Engineering 101, a free online book that explains how AI agents work, from tool calling and context management to coding agents and retrieval-augmented generation.

If you're new to the series, you can browse previous editions, search past opportunities, and explore Community Finds, Reader Updates, and Resources Worth Checking Out on the Dev Opportunity Radar website. I've also written a short post about why I built it. You'll find links to both at the end of this article.

If you've discovered something through the Radar, I'd love to hear about it. Whether you applied to an opportunity, joined a community, completed a program, or found a resource you hadn't seen before, I'd be happy to feature your experience in a future 💙 Reader Updates section, with your permission.

And if you've come across an opportunity, resource, community, program, or event that deserves more attention, feel free to share it in the comments.

If I feature one of your Community Finds in a future edition, I'll always make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.

📝 A quick note: I spend a lot of time researching and reviewing the opportunities I feature in Dev Opportunity Radar. However, deadlines, eligibility, program details, and application requirements can change after publication. Before applying, please visit the official program page, review the latest information, and confirm that you're eligible.

Before we get into this week's opportunities, here are a few from the two most recent editions that are still accepting applications or submissions.

As the Radar has grown, there are now quite a few opportunities spread across the different editions. I used to keep all the still-open opportunities here, but I don't think repeating a long list every week makes the editions easier to read.

So I keep this section to the two most recent editions as a quick reminder of opportunities you may have missed. Older opportunities are still available on the Dev Opportunity Radar website, where you can browse the collection and use the filters to find something specific.

I've already covered the opportunities below in detail, so I won't repeat everything here. If any of them catch your attention, you can go back to the original edition for the full overview, eligibility details, and application links.

Please check the original editions for complete details and confirm that each opportunity is still accepting applications or submissions before proceeding.

Here are a few opportunities I came across this week that I thought were worth sharing.

Who it's for: People working on interesting or unconventional projects, including engineers, scientists, founders, operators, and others pursuing work across different fields.

The Basis Fellowship offers $50,000 to selected fellows, along with access to a network of people working across different areas.

Rather than focusing on one particular industry or type of project, the fellowship is interested in people doing a wide range of work. The examples on its website include an electrical setup, a thermoelectric cloud chamber, and a neurostimulation machine. The idea is to bring together people who might be working on very different things but could benefit from finding one another.

The fellowship doesn't require equity, reporting, or restrictions on how the money is spent. Applicants can submit a portfolio and other useful information, and the application asks them to answer the questions honestly.

People from different backgrounds can apply, whether they're engineers, scientists, operators, or working in another field. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and an application doesn't expire if someone isn't selected immediately. Applicants can send updates when something new happens.

There's also a nomination option. If someone you nominate is selected, you receive $1,000. The website also mentions a discretionary $3,000 award for a strong submission that isn't selected.

Funding: $50,000 for selected fellows Equity: None Eligibility: Open to people across different fields and backgrounds Application process: Submit a portfolio and other relevant information Applications: Rolling basis Deadline: No fixed deadline stated Nomination reward: $1,000 if your nominee is selected Additional award: A discretionary $3,000 for a strong submission that isn't selected

Fellowship overview and application | Nominate someone

Who it's for: Football analysts, data analysts and scientists, software developers, and tech enthusiasts interested in using data and technology to understand football.

More Than a Hack 2027 is a football analytics hackathon organized by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Barça Innovation Hub, and Metrica Sports. Participants work with real FC Barcelona match data to develop analytical solutions related to the game.

The hackathon has two online challenge stages, followed by an in-person final pitch at Talent Arena 2027 in Barcelona.

The Initial Challenge asks teams to estimate team possession for every frame of a football match using provided automatic tracking data and homography. Participants don't need to build player detection, identification, appearance, or calibration systems from scratch. Submissions are automatically evaluated and ranked.

The top 20 teams advance to the Innovation Challenge. In this stage, teams can explore analytical or tactical questions using a dataset of 10 professional matches. They can experiment with different approaches to analysis, modeling, interpretation, and generating insights, with specialized technical mentoring available.

The top five teams from this stage will be invited to present their projects at Talent Arena 2027 in Barcelona. Travel and accommodation expenses for the final pitch are covered. The listed prizes also include official FC Barcelona shirts, Barça Innovation Hub merchandise, and an exclusive FC Barcelona experience.

Teams must have 3 to 5 members. Teams with fewer than three members won't be eligible for the Innovation Challenge or the Final Pitch.

Registration is open until November 10, 2026. The Initial Challenge is already underway, so anyone interested should review the schedule and registration requirements before joining.

Format: Two online challenges followed by an in-person final pitch Team size: 3–5 members Data provided: FC Barcelona match videos, automatic tracking data, and automatic event data Registration: October 1–November 10, 2026 Initial Challenge: October 20–November 17, 2026 Innovation Challenge: November 26, 2026–January 14, 2027 Final Pitch: March 2, 2027, at Talent Arena in Barcelona Finalists' travel: Travel and accommodation expenses covered for the final pitch

More Than a Hack 2027 registration and details

Who it's for: Early-career researchers, engineers, and analysts from technical or quantitative disciplines, including fields such as physics, mathematics, cognitive science, and quantitative finance.

The Perplexity Research Fellowship is a full-time research program for early-career talent interested in advancing AI research. Fellows join Perplexity's R&D teams and work on research areas such as multi-agent planning, continual learning, pre-training, and human-AI interaction.

The fellowship runs for three months, with opportunities to extend the program or transition into a full-time, research-focused role. Fellows work in person alongside researchers and engineers at one of Perplexity's offices and may contribute to research publications and other research outputs.

I came across this opportunity after its priority consideration deadline had passed, but applications are still being accepted on a rolling basis until positions are filled. The priority deadline was September 30, 2026, so applications submitted now may not receive priority consideration. The November 2026 and January 2027 cohorts are listed as priority start dates, but it's worth checking the application page for current availability.

Tracks: Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Duration: 3 months, full-time Compensation: $180,000 annualized for predoctoral fellows and $220,000 annualized for postdoctoral fellows Location: In person in San Francisco, Palo Alto, or New York City Application status: Accepting applications on a rolling basis until positions are filled Priority consideration deadline: September 30, 2026 (passed) Visa support: Available depending on individual circumstances

Note: This is a short-term employment program, not a conventional internship. Students whose requested start date is before graduation should carefully review the program's leave-of-absence requirements.

Not every useful find comes with an application deadline.

Here's one resource worth checking out this week.

Who it's for: Developers who want to understand how AI agents work, particularly those interested in LLM APIs, tool use, context management, and building coding agents.

Harness Engineering 101 is a free online book by Isuru Wijesiri that explores how to build AI agents from first principles.

It starts with a simple idea: an LLM provides the reasoning, while the harness is the program that manages the conversation, tools, and execution around it.

The book develops this idea across 16 chapters, using a small Python agent of approximately 300 lines as its foundation. Rather than treating agent frameworks as black boxes, it explains the problems that arise when building an agent and the changes needed to address them.

The chapters cover topics such as the agent loop, tool calling, caching, context-window management, subagents, background work, debugging, guardrails, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). There are also sections on coding agents, MCP, skills, hooks, model routing, worktree isolation, retries, rate limits, and streaming.

Each chapter follows a practical structure: the problem being addressed, the minimal change needed to solve it, and the trade-offs that come with that change. The book also includes runnable Python code and diagrams to help explain the concepts.

If you're trying to understand what happens behind an AI agent framework, or want to build a basic agent yourself before working with more complex abstractions, this could be a useful resource to explore.

Format: Free online book with source code on GitHub Language: Python Topics: AI agents, LLMs, tool calling, context management, MCP, RAG, coding agents Version: 1.1, October 2026

One of my favorite things about this series has been seeing people share opportunities, communities, and resources that others might not have discovered otherwise.

We've had some really wonderful Community Finds over the last few weeks, and I honestly can't thank everyone enough for taking the time to find these opportunities, look through them, and send them my way. I know that takes time, and I appreciate every person who thinks of the Radar when they come across something they feel others might find useful 💙

This week, we weren't able to include a community find, but that's completely okay. Hopefully we'll have more wonderful finds from the community as we keep going.

So if you come across an opportunity, fellowship, grant, hackathon, conference, community, resource, or anything else you think more people should know about, please do send it my way. I love seeing what you find, and it helps make this series better for everyone.

If I feature something you shared in a future edition, I'll always make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.

One small request: If you're sharing an opportunity, please avoid posting raw URLs directly in the comments. DEV sometimes filters them before I get a chance to see them.

A short description alongside the link makes it much easier for me to review and potentially feature it in a future edition.

I'm looking forward to this section gradually growing over time, and I'd still love to hear from you.

One of my favorite parts of writing Dev Opportunity Radar has been hearing from people who discovered something they otherwise might have missed.

If you discovered an opportunity through the Radar, applied to something, joined a community, attended an event, or simply found a resource you hadn't seen before, I'd genuinely love to hear about it.

You don't need to have been accepted or have a big success story to share. Sometimes simply discovering the right opportunity at the right time is already a win.

If you'd like to share an update, feel free to leave a comment on this edition. With your permission, I may feature it in a future 💙 Reader Updates section and tag you so other readers can celebrate your journey too.

I hope this section gradually becomes a place where we can celebrate those stories together, one update at a time.

Before I go, I just want to say thank you.

Every week, I spend time searching for opportunities, resources, and communities that I think deserve a little more attention. But one of my favorite parts of this series isn't the research. It's seeing what happens after an edition is published.

Seeing someone discover an opportunity, apply to a program, share a resource, suggest a Community Find, or come back to tell us what they learned reminds me why I started Dev Opportunity Radar in the first place.

Help people discover opportunities they otherwise might have missed.

Thanks to all of you, it feels like we're doing exactly that.

Whether you've been reading since the very first edition or this is your first time here, thank you for being part of the journey. Every comment, suggestion, and shared opportunity helps make this series better than I could build on my own.

If you ever come across an opportunity, resource, event, community, or anything else you think deserves more attention, I'd love for you to share it in the comments. And if Dev Opportunity Radar helped you discover something exciting, I'd love to hear that too.

Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for helping make this our radar, not just mine.

I'll be back next Friday with more opportunities, resources, and Community Finds.

Until then, take care, and I hope you discover something interesting this week 💙

If this is your first time discovering the series, you can explore every edition, browse opportunities by category, discover Community Finds, and catch up on Reader Updates on the Dev Opportunity Radar website.

I also wrote a short post about why I built the website and the journey behind it.