About the Author: Sergio Focardi is a partner of The Intertek Group. Before forming The Intertek Group, he was a director at Control Data. Dr. Focardi has authored and coauthored numerous articles, reports, and books on simulation and adaptive methods in research and industry. He holds a degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Genoa and has a specialization in Communications from the Electrotechnical Institute Galileo Ferraris in Turin. Caroline Jonas is a partner of the Intertek Group. Previously she was a senior consultant (Europe) with Regis McKenna Inc. Ms. Jonas has coauthored reports on advanced computational methods in banking and finance. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.