Bernard McCabe is a Senior Vice President of Daniel H. Wagner Associates (DHWA) in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where he is responsible for the firm's strategic planning and marketing. The function of the firm is to apply mathematics to a consulting and software development environment. Out of a total staff of about 50 at DHWA, 60% have Ph.D.s, primarily in the mathematical sciences.
"We design mathematical models of many different kinds of phenomena and situations," he says. "These include searching for lost or valuable objects or tracking objects of military interest. We also develop mathematical models for financial applications: evaluating complex investment options, portfolio design, risk-based pricing of loans."
"For instance, we recently produced a model for risk-based auto loan pricing. From knowledge of competitive pricing, customer volumes, and customer behavior (probability of defaulting or paying off) as a function of credit score, DHWA designed a system to produce the interest rate offered as a function of credit score that maximizes an economic measure of performance."
"Our clients include first of all a number of US Navy activities. This involves some work directly for the fleet (tactics decision aids), lots of modeling work for Navy laboratories, and systems studies for Washington planners. Work on tactics decision aids is particularly enjoyable. One often is designing ways to employ systems with novel features which require entirely new thinking about how to use them. There is a lot of game-theoretic thinking involved -- you have to think ahead about how an adversary will react to a tactic you are employing, but the adversary may have an incomplete picture of exactly what we are doing. It requires lots of imagination and lots of common sense, as well as our mathematical tools."
"The scope of what we are able to do has expanded enormously in the past few years with today's computers. Calculations that we would not even attempt are now routine. One frequently catches oneself employing efficient ways of doing things that are irrelevant -- no one cares if it takes 1 or 1.5 microseconds to produce the answer (unless that is one of a billion calculations). We are also able to very rapidly prototype something to show a client which has very slick graphics and interactive features that help foster understanding. Recently we produced such a package in three working days which dazzled a client who was expecting a paper and pencil walk through. So the windows workstations as well as the fast processing are essential parts of the work environment."
Bernie has a B.S. in mathematics from Manhattan College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Catholic University. After two years with ATT, he joined DHWA and has been with them for 27 years. "I heard about the company via the publications of the people on the staff," he recalls, "and started out as low man on the totem pole. I love solving practical problems and the variety of problems and people I work with here. I've very much enjoyed being a consultant"
The courses he recommends to students include probability, statistics, numerical analysis, computer science of all kinds, and programming.
If you are interested in preparing for a career as a consultant, Bernie has the following advice: "Plan on getting an advanced degree, preferably right after college (or your resolve may falter). Learn a lot of mathematics of lots of types. If your thesis is in some back water area (as many are) maintain an interest and spend time on other more mainstream studies , reading and course taking."
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