How do we meet the needs of industry in the 21st century while researching and developing technology for future generations? How do we prepare tomorrow’s engineers for engineering success on real-world applications? The answer is simple: we must all work together. By “we,” I mean academia, industry and (for the purposes of this Blog) CD-adapco as an engineering tool provider. Academia and industry have been successfully collaborating together for over 100 years. When industry and academia work together to push the boundaries, they form a powerful team capable of driving innovation and economic growth. Moving forward, there needs to be more open communication and collaboration between industry and academia to understand and address the qualities and skills engineering graduates should possess when transitioning from academia to industry. This means collaboration needs to expand from research labs and into the classroom.