ESSAY THIRTEEN - Software and Industrial Research

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of software and industrial research. Industrial research in the modern sense may be said to have its origins in the great inter-war industrial research laboratories, especially the Bell Telephone Laboratories, then in New York, and the GEC Research Laboratories at Wembley in England. The function of these laboratories was the application of the experimental scientific method to industrial problems. An important outcome of their work was the acquisition of patents that could either be exploited directly or licensed to other companies. Money spent on research was seen as being a profitable investment in the purely financial sense. As the computer industry has become dominated by software, hardware research has receded into the background. The computer industry sees itself as advancing as a whole, with industrial research laboratories and university laboratories both contributing to innovation. There is keen competition between companies to recruit the more creative computer science and engineering graduates, and to provide them with an environment in which they can develop their talents for the benefit of the company.