Progress in Industrial Mathematics at ECMI 2000

Realizing the need of interaction between universities and research groups in industry, the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry (ECMI) was founded in 1986 by mathematicians from ten European universities. Since then it has been continuously extending and now it involves about all Euro­ pean countries. The aims of ECMI are • To promote the use of mathematical models in industry. • To educate industrial mathematicians to meet the growing demand for such experts. • To operate on a European Scale. Mathematics, as the language of the sciences, has always played an im­ portant role in technology, and now is applied also to a variety of problems in commerce and the environment. European industry is increasingly becoming dependent on high technology and the need for mathematical expertise in both research and development can only grow. These new demands on mathematics have stimulated academic interest in Industrial Mathematics and many mathematical groups world-wide are committed to interaction with industry as part of their research activities. ECMI was founded with the intention of offering its collective knowledge and expertise to European Industry. The experience of ECMI members is that similar technical problems are encountered by different companies in different countries. It is also true that the same mathematical expertise may often be used in differing industrial applications.

The European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry (ECMI) was founded in 1986 by leading groups of mathematicians in Europe for the following scopes: i) direct involvement of mathematicians in R&D activities; ii) international cooperation at a European scale; iii) education of industrial mathematicians to meet the growing demand for such experts. ECMI 2000 shows that ECMI has offered a unique example of effective international cooperation thanks to the financial support of the European Framework programmes. In particular they have helped ECMI establishing a set of Special Interest Groups to favour interaction with industry . This volume includes minisymposia about their activities, in particular microelectronics, glass, polymers, finance, traffic, and textiles. Applied mathematicians and other professionals working in academia or industry will find the book to be a useful and stimulating source of mathematical applications related to industrial problems.