I don't know how much inspiration Star Trek provided in this case, but it's not unheard of for scientists and engineers to find some inspiration in science fiction.
I'm reminded of a story about how the science fiction writer Katherine MacLean [1], who predicted the role of computers in communication and music in her 1947 novelette Incommunicado, accidentally stumbled into a conference of electrical engineers and found herself quickly surrounded by Bell Telephone researchers who were inspired by her ideas to build the next generation of communications equipment.
As a software engineer, I have to admit to being inspired by near-future software engineering fiction that explores new ideas, many of which are quite achievable.