The history of AIMe is introduced to you by Axel Bloemen, who was involved with the founding of AIMe.

The start of AIMe

If it still is this way, I don't know, but when I started the designer program Mathematics for Industry in September 1990 it was usual for everyone to fulfill a specific 'task'. For one person this could be the administration of the PCs. For me, Piet Cijsouw had in mind the founding of an association for (former) trainees of this program. I found out that officially founding an association takes quite a lot of work.

First, the statutes of the association have to be formulated, after which the association can be officially founded by having a notary draw up an act. Finally, the association has to be registered with the board of trade (Kamer van Koophandel). After I formulated concept statutes, using statutes of another association, the time had come to think of possible names for the association. Many of my fellow trainees came up with a name, some more serious than others. The following more or less serious suggestions were made. A first was UNITED (UNIon of TEchnological Designers), with as motivation that this name is related to mathematics, since union means association in general, as well as being a mathematical concept. A second name was MADE (MAthematical Designers Eindhoven), with the idea that a made (wo)man is a (wo)man who 'made' it. A third suggestion was SDI (Society of Designers in Industry), and finally AIME (Association of Industrial Mathematicians Eindhoven). At first, the letter F of First was put in front of the name (FAIME, accordingly).

After this process, the (former) trainees (at that moment 29 people) were sent a letter with the question if they were interested in membership of the association and if they wanted to be a board member. The ones that would not come to the inaugural meeting in September 1991 could give their preference for one of the names for the association. Of the 29 people who received this letter, 25 were interested in the membership. Of these, 15 were present at the inaugural meeting, in which the name AIME was chosen after an 'IOC-like' voting round. In the meantime, work was done on a sound financial basis for the association by contacting the then existing Instituut Vervolgopleidingen (Institute Continuing Education) and the Department of Mathematics; both promised a subsidy for the association. I myself was not present at the official foundation at the notary, since by then I was in Linz to 'enjoy' several analysis courses.

Axel Bloemen

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This text was translated from Dutch by Eva van Niekerk