At its core, engineering has always been a discipline of materials, machines and methods. The true engineer is not simply a user of tools or software, but someone who understands how materials behave, and can apply that understanding to build machines and methods that solve problems at scale.
The foundation lies in mastering the properties of materials. When we say water turns to steam at 100°C under standard atmospheric pressure, it is not just a scientific fact, it is a key that unlocked an entire era of mechanised progress. The ability to control pressure and temperature gave rise to steam engines, reshaped transportation, and enabled industries that once seemed unimaginable. The precision of material behaviour is what gives engineering its rigor and repeatability.
We see the same principle extend into the world of electronics. Some materials conduct electricity with ease, others resist it, and a special few, the semiconductors, allow us to tune their behaviour through external stimuli or doping. It is this delicate, engineered control that gave us transistors, microprocessors, memory chips, and the entire digital revolution. From AI-powered drones to self-driving cars, all modern systems trace back to an understanding of material science at the atomic level.
This, in my view, is the essence of engineering. The abstractions built on top, what we typically call “technology”, are simply the next layers of innovation. And while these abstractions are necessary, practical, and often elegant, they can also disconnect us from the fundamentals. With each passing layer, it becomes easier to forget how the underlying machine works, or what the material underneath can or cannot do.
There is nothing wrong with working at higher levels of abstraction. In fact, that is what enables scale, speed, and accessibility. But it does not absolve engineers from the responsibility to understand how things actually work. To build systems that are reliable, adaptable, and efficient, one must invest time in understanding the properties of the building blocks – be it physical materials or the logic gates inside a processor.
Call it deep research, call it curiosity, or just call it good engineering. But unless the next generation of engineers is encouraged to engage directly with materials, and to build – not just deploy – we will slowly lose the culture of engineering innovation. And in its place, we will be left with very sophisticated consumers of past breakthroughs.