Most engineers involved in cutting edge design have a close link with some form of academic institution. Either acting in a consultative role or as the design authority. If your project is funded then your angel investors may insist you onboard some bright minds from Cambridge or MIT - just to insure their investment.
As a thought exercise, where DO engineering equations originate? From magnetism to super fluidity, acceleration to energy, physicists are the people who give engineers nice equations and constants, so the engineers can make stuff for people who never knew they needed that stuff. Maybe we should not say V=IR but instead Voltaire = Ampere * Ohm
Whether engineers like it or not, they cannot and must not fit the fundimentals to suit themselves. V != I / R unless at some weird energy state. Which is more physics.