Sorry if I wasn’t clear, I don’t mean he personally is at the forefront of all engineering, I mean he’s learning how to improve an existing thing, and has been successful, and some part of that (exact process or just general thought) might have more practical uses in future.

It may be that it’s literally a reusable concept or method and he has, as you say “cracked it”, though it’s a fairly low chance - but more likely he’s learnt a tiny step, that may be reusable in totally different things (by him, or anyone that saw it or heard about it).

At worst, the process of working it out helps his learning for whatever he goes on to do in the future.