How Could a University use a Digital Twin?
Our continuing adventures to investigate practical use cases for digital twins. Waterstons Innovation: The Dots
Waterstons specialises in a few key sectors - all of which could be impacted by digital twins in different ways. As part of our digital twin series, we have gone and asked some of our sector experts about their views. Today’s article focuses on Higher Education, and is written by Dani, one of our business consultants.
What is this? This is The Dots, our newsletter about exciting things we find in the world of innovation. We imagine innovation as connecting the dots; putting together a jigsaw. Our puzzle pieces are the pieces of interesting information we absorb in the world, our partners and their products. This newsletter is about these dots we find and connect.
Higher Education
What is a digital twin?
A digital twin is often confused with data platforms or simulations, but its essence lies in its ability to be a detailed and dynamic replica of a place, object or process, have a bi-directional flow of data and aid in decision-making.
At Waterstons, we think of digital twins as doppelgängers of real-world things, perfect for smart analysis, proactive monitoring, and making accurate predictions.
Why Digital Twins Matter?
They are transforming various sectors, and with the digital twin global market forecasted to reach $73.5 billion by 2027, higher education (HE) institutes need a seat in that lecture hall. However, it is important to recognise that digital twin technology has received significant attention and hype in recent years, consequently, it is challenging to determine overall financial impact.
In HE spaces, digital twins hold immense potential to enhance campus management, improve student support services, and foster innovation in teaching and learning methodologies.
Here are some key ways they can work their magic:
Sustainability: With IoT sensors, digital twins help universities stride towards net-zero goals by monitoring energy usage and highlighting areas of improvement to reduce environmental impact.
Maintenance and Quality: Digital twins can predict when maintenance is needed, keeping an eye on building quality and preventing unexpected repairs.
Health and Indoor Environment: They monitor and optimise airflow, ensuring indoor air quality remains top-notch for everyone’s well-being.
Efficiency: By tracking student foot traffic, digital twins help optimise campus flow, making sure everyone gets where they need to be efficient.
Personalised Learning: Digital replicas of students allow educators to gather data on learning styles, preferences, and progress, creating personalised learning experiences, where nobody gets unintentionally left behind.
Asset Forecasting and Planning: Universities can simulate campus expansions, renovations, and sustainability initiatives in a virtual environment, making planning more efficient and effective.
Emergency Preparedness: By simulating emergency scenarios, digital twins enhance security measures and preparedness, ensuring a safer campus environment.
Intelligent Decision Making: Real-time monitoring and constant data collection enable smarter decision-making, from optimising operations to anticipating problems.
Enhanced Student Support: By analysing trends and patterns, digital twins help identify at-risk students early, allowing for timely interventions and tailored support to improve retention and academic outcomes.
In my opinion, the most significant impact of digital twins in the short term will be felt in less ‘hot topic’ areas such as sustainability. While there's immense potential in this realm, for universities taking their initial steps into digital twins, I believe digital twinning student support and administrative processes would make the greatest difference. Many universities we work with have repetitive roles, siloed departments, and disjointed systems. Financial savings and time saved for employees through operational efficiency improvements may not appear glamorous, but they are crucial. Also, improving this foundational area could pave the way for more ambitious digital twin projects.
Specifically, how can Digital Twins can be utilised in HE?
Digital twins enable real-time monitoring of assets through the deployment of sensors (IoT), thereby providing valuable insights into the asset's current state and dynamic environmental conditions. It's like having a team of invisible helpers whispering secrets about energy usage, reduced space usage, and infrastructure quirks!
One of the primary applications of digital twins in higher education is asset forecasting and planning. By simulating various scenarios in a virtual environment, institutions can efficiently plan for campus expansions, renovations, emergencies, and sustainability initiatives. Imagine plotting campus renovations or fire drills in just a few clicks. Why not spice it up with a security breach? By simulating emergency scenarios and planning responses accordingly, universities can enhance security measures and preparedness. Digital twins allow institutions to proactively identify potential security threats and implement measures to mitigate risks, ensuring a safer campus environment for students, faculty, and staff.
Another benefit comes from the real-time monitoring and constant data collection, allowing for more intelligent decision-making and enhanced student support. Using machine learning algorithms to analyse trends and patterns, digital twins can help to anticipate problems and optimise operations as well as understand students' preferences, behaviours, and performances better, leading to the development of personalised learning environments. This could hypothetically help to identify at-risk students and allow early intervention, hopefully improving retention rates and academic outcomes. By understanding individual student needs and challenges, institutions can tailor resources to optimise student success and engagement.
But let's see some of these ideas and concepts in action....
The University of Birmingham in the UK has deployed a digital twin of its campus to support planning and development initiatives. By integrating data from multiple sources, including building layouts and environmental conditions, Birmingham can simulate different scenarios and assess the impact of proposed changes, thereby making informed decisions about campus and city expansions and sustainability initiatives. This helped the university reduce carbon emissions but 20% in 2020 and boosted the carbon vision of their smart campus. This project also aligns with the vision for this area of Birmingham as a Green Innovation Quarter. Siemens aided in facilitating this, a global leader in smart infrastructure technology, offering innovative solutions for creating intelligent campuses that enhance the quality of work, living, and learning environments. They have a clear and exceptional catalogue explaining their abilities. Through ‘Xcelerator’, Siemens can facilitate and enable universities to leverage digital twins for efficient campus management and infrastructure optimisation.
Other noteworthy digital twin initiatives in higher education are being conducted through research at these universities, including...
The Arizona State University (ASU) has developed a platform called "eAdvisor," which serves as a digital doppelganger for each student, providing personalised recommendations and guidance based on their academic goals and progress. This virtual buddy can use predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms to help students stay on track, identifying potential challenges and suggesting interventions. This administrative perspective on digital twins might not be the most thrilling but potentially a lucrative avenue for growth. Considering all organisations have administrative needs, offering solutions to streamline and enhance these processes could be highly marketable.
The University of Melbourne is spearheading projects focused on leveraging digital twins to improve power resilience, coastal flooding, analysing pedestrian movement and energy efficiency in the building operational stage. It's like they're playing SimCity but with real-world impact!
There is also stimulating multidisciplinary work underway in areas such as Digital Twin for Stroke Care. The London Digital Twin Research Centre has been awarded an International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) networking grant by the Academy of Medical Sciences. This grant will foster international collaborations aimed at advancing digital twin technology for stroke care, laying the groundwork for expansive future research endeavours in this pioneering field. Such developments signal a promising future for personalised medicine, especially in oncology and cardiology, where it is currently most advanced. This potential for substantial improvements in patient-specific treatments and diagnostics is not only comforting but represents a significant stride forward for healthcare.
Are Digital Twins worth it financially?
At Waterstons, we understand there is a financial tie to any project, so we aim to ensure that the initial costs for exploring digital twin solutions are manageable. We also recognise that investing in digital twins in higher education can yield significant financial benefits, for example:
streamline campus operations can reduce administrative tasks and associated costs,
being energy efficient reduces bills and fines,
predictive maintenance can ensure little and often repairs occur to reduce the likelihood of more costly large-scale full replacements,
optimising space and resource allocation can potentially generate revenue from facility rentals and enhance operational effectiveness,
personalised learning experiences driven by digital twins improve student retention and attract enrolment,
and demonstrating innovation can attract grants and donations.
It's also important to remember that sometimes new technologies aren’t the answer for your institute and can be a waste of money. Consulting with experts to determine when and how to innovate can make all the difference, rather than simply jumping on buzzwords like 'digital twin'.
Overall, digital twins strengthen institutional reputation, competitiveness, and financial sustainability, making them a strategic investment for forward-thinking universities when implemented purposefully.
Do you want the flashy digital twin project to attract lots of students and grants or a more behind-the-scenes process improvement that speaks for itself in time?
In conclusion, the adoption of digital twins represents a pivotal step forward for universities embracing innovation. By harnessing this technology, institutions can create smarter, safer, and more sustainable campuses that cater to the evolving needs of students and faculty in the 21st century.
So, now what?
At Waterstons, we know that innovation can be scary and overwhelming, so our approach includes hands-on workshops, collaboration with industry experts, and the creation of cost-effective prototypes to demonstrate immediate value. With our aim to lead to actionable insights and sparking meaningful conversations with stakeholders. If you're intrigued by the potential of digital twins or wish to explore this further, feel free to connect with us.