In the last week of June 1996 the 9th conference of the European Consortium for Math ematics Industry, ECMI 96, took place at the Technical University of Denmark. The present volume of papers is a selection among the almost 200 contributions to the con ference. As a logo on the announcements of the conference the organising committee chose a picture of the connection between Denmark and Sweden which is currently under construction. We chose this picture primarily because of the elegant and decorative lines of the bridge, but for other reasons as well: Denmark is a country of islands, and the...