<p>I kind of understand what research in fields like Physics or Chemistry is like, but have no idea what Engineering research is like. Do research engineers still work to create a product like those in industry or is it something completely different? Links to examples of research done by PhD holding engineers would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Research in engineering is basically the same as it is in physics. The only real difference is that it will often be slightly more applied in nature rather than purely theoretical. Just like with physics, if you are doing research at a corporation it will mostly be applied research geared toward products they want to make. If you do it at a university it will often be more fundamental.</p>
<p>Pick any random engineering school, go to your favorite department’s website and browse the faculty pages and it will likely have their research or a link to their research listed. That should give you a decent idea.</p>
<p>
First, don’t make the common mistake of thinking that there are clear lines (at the doctoral level) between engineering and hard science. Engineers are generally focused on “how” while hard scientists are focused on “why”, but each does a bit of both.</p>
<p>Second, I would say that research engineers are generally engaged with trying to do something that no one has ever done before (or which no one has published the details of before), is not obvious, cannot just be solved by trial and error, and usually is not going to be directly ready for production. </p>
<p>The first part is pretty straightforward - if it has been done before and you have all the details before you, then you aren’t really researching anything. </p>
<p>The second part drives patent examiners nuts, but if it requires no special knowledge or effort then it usually does not qualify as research. </p>
<p>The third part has become a bigger issue, now that we have computer simulations that can do all the heavy lifting for us, but fine-tuning existing solutions does not really count as research (usually). </p>
<p>The fourth part is tied to the third, in that once a research engineer or scientist does it “the first time”, then turning it into a product generally becomes the optimization problem that is routine engineering. Now, it may lead to a product in very short order, and at many companies (especially small ones) the research engineer and the production design engineer are the same person on different days, but there is still a difference in the tasks.</p>
<p>Does that help?</p>
<p>It generally comes down to; if you can’t find where someone else has developed a solution to your problem (after an appropriate and thorough search), then it is research.</p>
<p>You don’t necessarily need a PhD to be involved in research. It helps, but first and foremost, you need the opportunity and the intellect to solve the problem. And some PhDs I’ve worked with have been doing only regular engineering work as they really didn’t have the required intellect to do research.</p>
<p>Whether you have a PhD or not, in my experience in industry, you usually need a number of years of experience to demonstrate the intellect to do research as the company will not risk the time and money on unproven talent.</p>
<p>Engineering research is generally aimed at the key technologies that will be used in products eventually, but typically not direct work on the products themselves. </p>
<p>The suggestion to browse University engineering department websites is a good one. A lot of company research labs also have web pages. </p>
<p>Here are a couple of examples
[Intel</a> Labs Research Areas Overview](<a href=“http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/research/research-areas/intel-labs-research-areas.html]Intel”>Intel Labs | The Future Begins Here)
[Research</a> at Google](<a href=“http://research.google.com/]Research”>http://research.google.com/)</p>
<p>A product like an iPhone uses research done in many areas, and in many cases, that research was done many years earlier.
- Small, lightweight batteries that last a long time
- Strong, thin, light glass
- LCD displays that allow more pixels in a smaller area
- Human factors
- Camera technology
- Cellular data communications technologies and standards
- Audio and video compression technologies and standards</p>
<p>and so on</p>