[bsoles]

The audience of software research is other software researchers.

The expectation that a practicing CS graduate, even with a master's degree, should be able to read, understand, and apply in their work research articles published in academic journals is not very meaningful.

Not because they are not capable people, but because research articles these days are highly specialized, building upon specialized fields, language, etc.

We don't expect mechanical engineers read latest research on fluid mechanics, say, making use of Navier-Stokes equations. I am a mechanical engineer with a graduate degree in another field and I would be immediately lost if I tried to read such an article. So why do we expect this from software engineers?

[KalMann]

Well I think you have to ask what the goal of the researchers are. In the case of fluid mechanics they may research new algorithms that make into the software mechanical engineers use, even if they don't understand the algorithms themselves for example. So mechanical engineers still benefit from the research.

So I guess what I'm wondering is if software engineers benefit from the research that software research produce? (even if they don't understand it themselves)

[ngriffiths]

Not all engineers are in the target audience, and not all details of research findings need to be conveyed to the target audience to make a real impact. The point is if no findings ever make it to engineers (in the broadest sense), there is zero real world impact. I guess real impact is not the only goal but it's a valid one.