U. of Maryland engineering Prof. Bruce Jacob makes a point in this short video from the Chronicle of Higher Education that there is a lot that goes into the commercial implementation of an engineering idea, and that engineering students just don't get exposed to most of it.
What he should have said was that engineering students who are not in his classes don't get exposed to it.
Jacob teaches a class on designing electric guitars (Why weren't engineering classes like this when I was in school?) which dovetails with a business he started making add-ins for customizing guitar sounds. One gathers that students in this class get to understand a lot of the factors that go into actually realizing a commercial product once the breadboard is done.
The Chronicle video is a bit unsatisfying because it really doesn't go into how he teaches these realities. But here it is:
http://chronicle.com/article/Teaching-Tech-Transfer-Through/47455/?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Also interesting is Jacob's home page which gives links to several other articles written about his guitar work:
