The Digital Twin Consortium (DTC) has announced that UCF has become an official member of the organization and will serve as a regional branch organizer for the Southeast U.S.

The DTC, established in 2020, is a widely recognized authority in digital twin technology. Its members coordinate academic, industry and government efforts to promote consistent standards in areas such as interoperability, vocabulary and architecture related to digital twin technology as it advances in multiple industries.

DTC is also part of a bigger organization, Object Management Group, which is a nonprofit consortium of 27 countries that seeks to develop consistent standards and harmonize terminology to ensure their relevance and applicability for various, evolving technologies.

The agreement between the university and DTC is set to last three years, and then it will come under review to determine its future continuation.

Senior UCF leaders have recognized this collaboration as a significant step forward in leveraging digital twin technology.

“With UCF having a digital twin initiative, I think it’s very important to be connected to the broader community,” says Soheil Sabri, an assistant professor in the digital twin initiative at UCF’s School of Modeling, Simulation and Training. “DTC has more than 200 members around the world. Being part of DTC is helping UCF understand all the challenges in the current state of industry.”

What is a Digital Twin?

A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical object, system or process that uses real-time data to simulate its behavior. Digital twins are valuable for several purposes, such as testing scenarios, predicting performance and identifying potential flaws without the costs and risks associated with real-life testing.

This technology is relatively new, which can lead to a variety of understandings across the industries that employ them.

“With ‘digital twins,’ there are a lot of different definitions, and different groups have their own perceptions of what that concept is,” Sabri says. “Some think digital twin is a tool or a product, and others think it’s a methodology or a process. DTC’s working groups are trying to contribute to the entire community’s understanding of the digital twin and its value to their own sectors.”

Sabri believes UCF can play a leadership role in the DTC domain because of its digital twin initiative.

“It’s a big deal for us to be a part of this consortium and play a leadership role in supporting industry, government, and other academic institutions to implement and leverage the work we are doing and collaborating on,” he says.

A Leader in Digital Twins

As a consortium regional branch organizer (RBO), UCF has accepted certain duties in working with its partners, including executing conferences, meetings and awareness efforts.

The university will also help facilitate innovation and ideas by helping develop the digital twin workforce to the market.

“In this region, you can imagine the importance of the digital twin in relation to Kennedy Space Center, the entertainment industry and the defense industry,” Sabri says.

“They’re interested in working with us, and they would like to be part of our journey, especially in the education and training aspects. That’s really important from UCF’s perspective, and we’re in a very strategic position in the U.S. as compared to other RBOs.”

With UCF’s recent addition to DTC, Sabri explained that the university would announce a regional plan to support industry requirements through awareness programs, workshops and professional development in the near future.

“We hope to bring industry’s challenges into our group and make a connection between different industries and the government so we can coordinate innovation in digital twin technology and address some of the challenges those industries are facing,” he says.