Overview

Balancing Science and Engineering

We've been on the forefront of the effort to adopt cutting edge engineering ideas and apply them to science. There has been an explosion of good ideas in engineering in recent years. In particular, Internet and communications technologies have advanced rapidly. New approaches, programming language, testing methodologies, etc., are readily applicable to the sciences we focus on. We're often the first to adopt new engineering technologies when we see overlooked value.

Conventional wisdom often dictates avoiding new technologies until they have proven themselves to a reasonable extent. Generally, we agree with this view. However, because of the amount of engineering effort that has gone into Internet related technologies and the vast worldwide pool of engineers that use and validate them it is often possible to use new tools, techniques, methodologies, etc., that are even more well tested and well understood than the older technologies they replace.

With the unprecedented growth of well tested and well understood engineering solutions there has never been a better time for our balanced approach to science and engineering. Science and engineering are complimentary. Science is a systematic attempt to acquire knowledge. Engineering is the creative application of science to build things. When these too endeavors are well balanced science informs engineering and engineering provides empirical results to inform science. The combination of science and engineering are doubly important to us because our customers demand working systems based on science.