Here are a few suggestions that worked for me during my PhD:

1. Attend talks in conferences given by people from the industry. Also be sure to talk to them about your work after their talk and ask them about the usefulness of your work. At the end of the conversation, get the person's card and be sure to send them an e-mail every six months or so to remind them of your existence.
2. Attend talks in your school given by people from the the industry and follow the same approach as above.
3. The best option but maybe the hardest one to find: find a lecturer in your school with 20+ years of experience in the industry not necessarily in exact your field to be your mentor. Higher-ups in the industry know where to fit all sorts of talent, including yours. I got a PhD in civil engineering working with water infrastructure and found a lecturer in the school of public administration who made a career working with transportation engineer. This guy saved my in various ways: giving me career advice, introducing me to people from areas connected to my industry, reviewing the e-mails I sent to these people, teaching me how to talk to higher-ups in the industry, and offering me his guest apartment after I graduated and had no stipend to pay rent.

In the end it all boils down to one or more mentors in the industry. The higher their position, the better. Given that most students and postdocs are too shy/awkward to go out and just talk to them, by just saying hi you'll be doing a lot better than everyone else.

If this makes you feel better, I'm yet to see an engineering Postdoc or PhD (myself included) of the many I know currently in the industry that were hired to do what they did in their research, instead of something loosely correlated with it. You can be sure that your skills are broader and more valuable than you think. That said, here are a few suggestions that worked for me during my PhD to make sure I didn't spend too much time on completely pointless topics:

1. Attend talks in conferences given by people from the industry. Also be sure to talk to them about your work after their talk and ask them about the usefulness of your work. At the end of the conversation, get the person's card and be sure to send them an e-mail every six months or so to remind them of your existence.
2. Attend talks in your school given by people from the the industry and follow the same approach as above.
3. The best option but maybe the hardest one to find: find a lecturer in your school with 20+ years of experience in the industry not necessarily in exact your field to be your mentor. Higher-ups in the industry know where to fit all sorts of talent, including yours. I got a PhD in civil engineering working with water infrastructure and found a lecturer in the school of public administration who made a career working with transportation engineer. This guy saved my in various ways: giving me career advice, introducing me to people from areas connected to my industry, reviewing the e-mails I sent to these people, teaching me how to talk to higher-ups in the industry, and offering me his guest apartment after I graduated and had no stipend to pay rent.

In the end it all boils down to one or more mentors in the industry. The higher their position, the better. Given that most students and postdocs are too shy/awkward to go out and just talk to them, by just saying hi you'll be doing a lot better than everyone else..