The Theory–Practice–Entrepreneurship Gap [President’s Message]

My colleague John Doyle once said to me, “The gap between theory and practice is a lot bigger in practice than in theory.” In this column, I will share my journey across this gap through entrepreneurship, especially the mistakes I have made, in response to Thomas Parisini’s invitation to share personal experiences on how control theory impacts applications. I do not conduct research to create start-ups. However, I’m excited when some of our research has the potential to make an impact in practice. I’m not interested in initiating just any start-up but, rather, a high-tech start-up that translates our own research into the marketplace. There are many kinds of entrepreneurial models, and my experience is limited to a particular type of entrepreneurship, one with an extra risk. Unfortunately, for an academic like myself who is interested in research impact (not start-ups per se), this risk is almost unavoidable and must be managed. Before I elaborate, let me first clarify my view on practice, research, and theory research.