These contributions began in 1957 with PRONTO, the first commercial numerical-control programming system. While at General Motors Research Laboratories in the 1960s, Dr. Hanratty was a co-designer of DAC (Design Automated by Computer), the first production interactive graphics manufacturing system.

Since the day it was founded in 1971, MCS has enjoyed an enviable reputation for technological leadership in mechanical CADD/CAM software. Throughout its history, the company has focused its attention on the production of fully integrated CAD/CAM products that provide binary data compatibility across an exceptionally wide range of computers and operating systems, and MCS's current flagship product, ANVIL-EXPRESS, continues this tradition.

In addition to selling products under its own name, in its early years MCS also supplied the CADD/CAM software used by such companies as McDonnell Douglas (Unigraphics), Computervision (CADDS), AUTOTROL (AD380), and Control Data (CD-2000) as the core of their own products. In fact, industry analysts have estimated that 70% of all the 3-D mechanical CADD/CAM systems available today trace their roots back to MCS's original code.

Dr. Hanratty has been a visiting professor of computer graphics at the University of California, Irvine, has also been a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, and has published numerous articles on design, solid modeling, numerical control, and interactive graphics.

Dr. Hanratty was the recipient of the 1982 Joseph Marie Jacquard Memorial Award presented by the Numerical Control Society and the 1985 Caby C. Smith Award presented by the National Computer Graphics Association. He was named one of the top 50 people for product innovation from 1946-1996 by Product Design and Development magazine and nominated for Technology Leader of the Year in 1997 by Industry Week magazine for his SNAP2 3-D technology, doing what was said could never be done, creating 3-D solid models from 2-D drawings at a click of a button. In 1999, he, along with Ivan Sutherland, were the first-ever inductees into the CAD/CAM Hall of Fame.

Dr. Hanratty is a Trustee of the Numerical Control Society, a Senior Member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and a life member of the National Computer Graphics Association and the American Institute of Design Drafting.

Dr. Hanratty received his doctor's degree in information and computer science from the University of California, Irvine. He also has a master's degree in systems engineering and a bachelor's degree in mathematics.