I recently connected, via Linkedin, with the Director of Constraint Programming Research and DevelopmentI at Oracle. He told me that the Dynamic CSP features of Oracle’s Solver are based on concepts presented in some papers I wrote years ago with a student, Dan Sabin. I promptly passed that info on to Dan.

I believe this sort of “knowledge transfer” or “impact” often “flys under the radar”. Aside from patent or paper citations there is no formal mechanism for acknowledging such influence. I would encourage folks in industry to take a moment now and then to send a note to academics, or speak with them at a conference, and let them know that their work has been helpful. This is gratifying and useful for academics, and, who knows, might encourage further productive interaction.