In 2016, during the Syrian Civil War, statistics about the conflict were everywhere. Thousands of people had been killed. The numbers were reported regularly. And yet, most people barely reacted.

Then a single photo changed everything.

It was the image of Omran Daqneesh, a young boy sitting dazed in an ambulance, face bloody and covered in dust. He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t even seriously injured. But because it was a child, and because it was visual, the world suddenly cared.

You might recall it. Can you also recall if it changed your thoughts about the war?

I remember being annoyed. People had been told about the deaths for months. They knew the scale of the suffering - including children. But they only seemed to care when the image hit their emotions.

This was not a new phenomenon. During the late 1800s, Belgian authorities were brutalising the people of the Congo. Reports were published. Descriptions were circulated. But global outrage only came when photographs appeared. One in particular, showing a father looking at the severed hands and feet of his child, triggered a wave of action. Words and statistics alone had not been enough.
The lesson is clear. If you want people to understand, sometimes you need imagery.

What this means for engineers
At first glance, this might feel like a very human failing that has little to do with engineering. But engineers face the same limitation. Numbers, tables, and percentages do not always trigger our full understanding. We often need to convert them into something more tangible to see their significance.
Good engineers learn to paint those pictures in their mind’s eye.

• What does it actually sound like when the SPL reaches that decibel level at that frequency?
• How would it smell if sewage of concentration x% entered the floodwaters?
• What tissue damage would be done if that voltage caused an electric shock to human skin?

In each case, data is only the starting point. Real understanding comes when you can translate the data into sensory and physical implications.

The challenge for the global engineer
We cannot always wait for the real image, the real sound, or the real smell. Our work depends on imagining those consequences before they occur. That’s how we prevent failure and design better systems.
So here is the challenge: next time you are presented with data, don’t just note the numbers. Take the extra step. Convert them into their physical impact. Hear it, smell it, feel it in your imagination.

If you do, you will have overcome one of the limitations of being human. And you will be closer to becoming a truly global engineer.

And you just might start to sense tragedy well before others.

Give thought now to how often you have only understood the seriousness of a situation after you experienced it in some way. And, based on that, think about if you need to put more conscious effort into using numbers to paint a picture in your mind's eye.  

When we talk about engineering, your mind probably leaps to blueprints, CAD drawings, graphs: visuals. Most engineers naturally rely on sight. But what if you could be a better and happier engineer by spreading your focus to all your senses?
To be a truly global or expert engineer, you need all your senses—not just your sight (literal or imagined).
Synectics: Engineering Through Your Body
In Synectics—an inventive design technique—engineers don’t just think; they become part of the system. You might physically mime the motion of a piston, feel the inertia of a valve, or walk through your proposed layout in the car park. This “sensual embodiment” sharpens your intuition about friction, resonance, and balance in ways a CAD model cannot.
When you feel the problem, you bypass the limitations of abstract thought—and you often find on solutions faster.
Beyond the Visual: A Full Sensory Approach
It is worth noting that, with age, you will likely develop subtle multi-sensory awareness: hearing the hum of a motor, feeling the vibration in a bridge truss. But why waiting for that to emerge passively? Instead, you can (should) train your senses deliberately:

• Listen to how systems vibrate or resonate.
• Touch materials to sense texture or stress effects.
• Smell overheated bearings to understand they are being worked too hard.

These can be your engineering superpowers; if you cultivate them.
A Lesson from Homer via Samuel Florman
Engineering isn’t new to sensory thinking. Samuel Florman recounts in The Existential Pleasures of Engineering how Homer’s Odyssey immerses us not just in sight, but in sound, touch, and even smell as Odysseus and Calypso fashion a raft. Florman writes that Homer’s detail brings us deeper into the world of engineering, in an almost romantic sense, by noting how all our senses can be stimulated by the process.
Why This Matters
We now live in an era reliant upon digital twins and simulations – and the chance of some engineers being replaced by AI. You risk losing the grounding connection to what it feels like, sounds like, smells like. And those are potent feedback channels. By intentionally engaging all your senses, you deepen your connection with the challenge ad your intuition for it. This makes a more effective engineer and you also get more out of the experience: making it more satisfying for you.
Take This Forward

• Next time you’re sketching solutions or creating them in CAD, stand up and mime the situation (or just use your hands if the office is crowded and you don’t want the attention).
• During testing, close your eyes—what do you hear, feel, or smell?

Becoming a sensual engineer I about reclaiming the full spectrum of what makes engineering more human and leveraging the power that offers.
Learn more about being a better engineer here.