What is a Research Engineer? Start with your garden-variety Backyard Inventor. Begin from a young age to cultivate spatial reasoning and mechanical skills. Not only should the candidate take his toys apart on Christmas morning, he must also put them back together again, with improvements. Now add 12 years of rigorous secondary, tertiary and post-tertiary Science education in all the areas that a practical inventor might need: English, Welding, Calculus, Economics, Physics and many more. Then, finish with more than 20 years’ experience in industry, for-profit, and Academic research enterprises. Now you have a Research Engineer, like me. What is Engineering Research? The Pure Sciences seek to expand basic Human understanding of the natural world. Physics is the study of matter, energy and fundamental processes of the universe;  Chemistry, the study of the elements and their compounds; Biology, the study of life; Mathematics, the study of pure reason, numbers and logic. These are all more-or-less naturally-occurring systems under study. In contrast to this, Applied Science is the effort to find practical applications for the outcomes of Pure Science. As a form of Applied Science, Engineering Research is the study and understanding of man-made systems, materials and technology. An Engineer knows how thick the steel must be to comply with building codes and ensure a bridge is safe. A Research Engineer knows, on a structural, materials, molecular and even atomic level, as well as from a mathematical and systems perspective, why this is so. This is essential in circumstances which have never been tried before and for which there are no “recipes” to follow.  The bridge analogy extends to all kinds of technologies. If you are building something that humans have a lot of experience with, you might employ an engineer. But if you are trailblazing into new territory, you might need a Research Engineer, a specialist in how to create new commercially relevant knowledge.

Why is Research Engineering a Specialization? Companies and individuals engage accountants and legal specialists because they know it saves time and money.   They may not realize that there are also experts in innovation that can save them tremendous amounts of time and money as well.   A Research Engineer possesses practical research skills, tactics, strategies and methods that many people may not even know exist.  In addition, a good one also possess an understanding of the realities of the competitive marketplace. Businesses go further faster when they rely on expert advice when creating new, competitive intellectual assets through innovation. Wallingup Research pty ltd was formed in 2005 to provide companies with high quality Engineering Research expertise, Science advisement, plain-English analyses, and compelling, clear presentations. It’s client list is always kept confidential to protect commercially-sensitive information. Services Provided: Innovation advisement for businesses engaged in engineering R&D including: overall development strategy and plan testing and prototyping strategies evaluation and analysis of data Leadership for multidisciplinary R&D teams Evaluation of the commercial potential of new ideas from: businesses universities individual inventors Investor advisement on science and engineering issues Management advisement for de-risking innovation businesses Wallingup Research is a corporate member of the Inventor's Association of Western Australia and subscribes to the Association's Code of Ethics (pdf) for Service Providers.