From Research Topic to Industrial Practice: An Experience Report

Abstract

Continuous technological progress requires both research and industry to work together. It is a necessity which cannot and should not be avoided. However, due to different interests of the two, it is often accompanied by various challenges. The inability to foresee and overcome the challenges can greatly impact the quality of collaboration results and thus chances of such results being used further by the industry. In this paper, we provide background on the topic and emphasize frequently discussed points. Focus of the work are industry-academia collaborations in applied computer science research such as visualization. For that purpose, a set of requirements is recognized and provided for both industry and research community. Further, we provide an overview of challenges recognized over years of experience from working in industry-academia collaborations. Together, the challenges indicate the gap between the industry and research which is inherently transferred further onto results of collaborative research. Finally, we discuss various possibilities for both industry and research to reduce the gap.