13 Jul 2004: 'This leads to the more general question: how do we keep the 'practical bias' in academic systems research? Before I try to answer that directly, it's worth looking at the way research is conducted by other engineering disciplines. (After all, one of the things that separates systems from the rest of computer science is its relative proximity to engineering.) To me, it's very interesting to look at the history of mechanical engineering at MIT. In particular, note the programs that no longer