(flamebait warning from someone who is in research) ... research in engineering fields is hardly just about studying and not doing. quite the opposite ... rese

(flamebait warning from someone who is in research) ... research in engineering fields is hardly just about studying and not doing. quite the opposite ... research is all about building prototypes to test out new concepts, and iterating on prototypes. when they were in school, the guys who later went on to found companies like VMWare, Google, and more recently Ksplice were hacking hardcore on prototyping and testing their ideas, not sitting in an ivory tower reading scholarly papers all day ;)