Increasing computing power in the last decades has given mathematical modeling
an ever greater impulse and made it a very important tool to solve
problems coming from industry. The European Consortium for Mathematics
in Industry (ECMI) was founded 20 years ago by mathematicians from ten
European universities to foster the use of mathematics to help European industry
and commerce to pose and solve their problems. The aims of ECMI are
to (a) promote the use of mathematical models and mathematics in industry,
(b) form applied mathematicians capable of working effectively in industry
and (c) work for these goals at the European scale. Efficient problem solving
often requires the use of results in different mathematical fields, yet no single
applied mathematician may be able to cover the whole subject. By providing
a European research network, ECMI can bring together experts from a wide
geographical range.