Editorial View – Looking ahead, April 2020

In this note, I’d like to reflect on a successful launch for the DT Hub and look ahead at some exciting planned activities. 

Launch

The formal launch of the DT Hub at the end of March generated considerable interest. I would like to express a personal thank you to all the members all your help in promoting it. 

More than 200 people registered their interest within just a few days, including innovators, stakeholders as well as asset owners. This was driven by a focus on personal sharing through social media, very much in line with our community ethos, which generated a real buzz with hundreds of engagements through “likes” and “shares”. 

As part of the launch, we also created a beta version of a separate space in the portal for innovators from the supply chain and other key stakeholders. We are working with a small group of these organisations to test and help us refine this area. Connected to this, we are developing an “Open Forum” where we can host joint discussions between existing DT Hub Members and the supply chain – more on that below.

Coming next

We’ve lined up an interesting set of activities, each building on the three priority themes that we identified with you.

Firstly, we’re excited to announce the “Digital Twin Talks”, with videos and facilitated online discussions in a public part of the Open Forum area. The first set of talks is a five-part series facilitated by @SimonEvans of Arup exploring how digital twins are defined and the overarching concepts around them.

Videos will be available from 9:00 each Tuesday with live discussions from 10:30 – 11:30. An introduction video is already available on the DT Hub home page.  The first talk, on the 28th April, is “Towards a Web of Digital Twins” from Olivier Thereaux at the ODI.

We will also run a webinar for theme 3 addressing the “Pathway to value” for digital twins on Thursday 30th April and will send out the invitation within the next few days. In addition, we will continue to share more content into the DT Hub to help spark discussions and follow up on themes 1 and 2 including:

•    A report with initial insights for theme 1 based on member discussions and research •    Ideas on a possible “test” for what might comprise a digital twin (part of theme 1) •    Potential “role profiles” for people who need to use and interact with digital twins (part of theme 2)  •    Intro pieces for themes 2 and 3

How to get involved

A quick reminder of a few of the ways you can get involved: •    Comment on an existing post or start a new topic in the Members Forum •    Add a summary of your digital twin projects to the DT Register (a register of digital twin projects – we’d be very happy to help to write these up) •    Join one of the Digital Twin Talks or the theme 3 webinar •    Let us know through the “Contact Us” option at the bottom of each page what other activities and content you would like to see in the portal in future 

We hope you will enjoy getting stuck into some of the activities we have planned over the next few weeks and look forward to joining you in those discussions.

As always please let us know if you have ideas of things you would like to see on the Hub.

Samuel A Chorlton Chair, DT Hub Steering Group 22nd April 2020