[Tom Hughes]

Hi @Dean – thanks for sharing your event with the community. As well as sharing events as a post in discussion, I wanted to let you know that our Calendar (Explore > Calendar) is also available for members of the community to share events. You can add an event to the calendar by clicking the green “Create Event” button at the top of the page. Apologies for not spotting this post sooner as it may be too late for this event, but I wanted to let you know about the option for future events. 

[Tom Hughes]

I’m sure other members of the community will have further examples, but if you haven’t already seen it you might want to look at the University of Coventry case study that was published by @Hadeel. The case study may not cover everything that you are looking for but it does document experiences of implementing a digital twins from an estates perspective.     

[Tom Hughes]

I thought of another example over coffee this morning – A digital twin that might start not knowing where things are and work to find them. It was reading an article about mandatory bike marking and the creation of a national bike database in France, and having had an expensive bike stolen in a scenario where I wasn’t coved by insurance. 

The more I think about this the more I am moving to an on the fence answer that in most cases the answer to the question will be yes, but there are specialist cases where it could be a no.  

[Tom Hughes]

I would say it needs to. Answering these and a few other practical questions is what the base data requirement in COBie does and is then extended to cover other plain language questions via project data requirements. More info from the UK BIM Alliance – Project Data Requirements – UK BIM Alliance

Purposefully trying to think of an example where the “always” part of the statement might not apply… I could imagine scenarios involving mobile assets where always knowing location isn’t practical or cost effective. A twin might know that something has left one place on route to another but hasn’t arrived, has left a place but hasn’t returned yet, or entered an environment where reporting on position isn’t possible. The location isn’t immediately unknown but a prediction that decreases in confidence as the time between known locations increases.

I think I have thought myself into the position that it might be OK for twins to lose things! in scenarios where the cost of knowing where everything is all of the time is greater than the cost of occasionally losing things.

I probably wont remember this logic next time I can’t find my keys 😀

[Tom Hughes]

55 minutes ago, Richard Bradley said:

Hi Tom, what I think we do poorly is maximising the benefits of sharing.  First we need an environment for sharing, which CDBB could enable.  The key role that is missing for me is the Admin / Integrator role, which is similar to say an open data source platform (e.g. QGIS) and someone writes an add-in and the Admin / Integrator merges this into the core code.  With the way we are silo’d, especially deeper into programmes and projects, there is no one organisation motivated for this role and so we can’t maximise the benefits of sharing.  Could this be a role for CDBB as part of the DG core functionality around populations?  Thanks Richard

@Richard Bradley I agree with you. Maximising the benefits of shaing is essential to delivering the National Digital Twin programme’s vision of an ecosystem of digital twins that are capable of delivering sustainable benefits for society, the environment and the ecomony. This twin talk series has brought together leaders to provide different perspectives on the interconnection of digital twins along side leading work in this space. The pathway to an Information Managment Framework puts forward the approach to realising this vision through the development of a common Foundation Data Model, Referece Data Library, and Integration Architecture. This is open for public consultation until the end of August and an excellent opportunity to provide feedback on the propsoed approach and role that CDBB could/should play in maximising the benefits of sharing. My personal view is a single organisaiton responsible for integration would face significant challanges in both capacity and capability. This could impact time to value and the ability to respond to the broad ranging challanges that Digital Twins may help to address. I think integration will be decentralised and driven by innovaiton. I think the role that CDBB will play is connecting this innovation with common principles and frameworks as well as alignment within the buit environment to create a positive selction pressure towards openness and away from closed systmes

[Tom Hughes]

Many thanks to @Mark Birkin and everybody on this chat for all your comments and questions.

We are now coming to the end of our live discussion, but we will keep this space open and available until the end of the day in case you have further thoughts or questions. We will continue to monitor the discussion during that time, but on a less frequent basis.

We will also add Marks’s video, along with the videos from previous talks, to this page: https://digitaltwinhub.co.uk/digital-twin-talks/

Looking ahead, our next week will be joined by the presenters from this twin talk series  for a live roundtable between 10:30 and 11:30 am BST.

We are keen for as many people as possible to benefit from this excellent series of talks and discussions. Please share a link to the DT Hub with your contacts and let them know about the Twin Talks.

[Tom Hughes]

@Mark Birkin you mention the UK Geospatial Strategy and you highlight part of the mission is to enable innovation. Earlier in this series we had a talk from @Neil from the Geospatial Commission looking at the pilot phase of the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR). Part of Neil’s talk looked at the data sharing processes between data owners and NUAR as well as how the data is shared with NUAR users using a security minded approach developed using a focused set of high value use cases. In the future Neil anticipates a consumer API for NUAR although the use cases for this are still active areas of development. Do you anticipate similar levels of innovation in relation to demographic digital twins, and in your view how important is establishing the right use cases for getting value from demographic simulation and what if planning?      

[Tom Hughes]

An open question to all in the discussion. What questions do you have for Mark about the Alan Truing Institutes work, or work elsewhere, on Demographic Digital Twins?

[Tom Hughes]

The recent Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) and CDBB publication  Flourishing Systems – Re-envisioning infrastructure as a platform for human flourishing puts a renewed focus on; People, Connections, Sustainability and Digitalisation. My view is the kind of demographic digital twins you presented in your talk are critical for this human centred approach to infrastructure. In your view how can owners of infrastructure assets benefit from demographic digital twin and in your experience what is necessary to interconnect infrastructure digital twins with demographic digital twins.  

[Tom Hughes]

4 minutes ago, Mark Birkin said:

Thanks Richard, that’s an interesting question and I must admit I have a tendency to be suspicious of overambitious approaches (boiling the ocean”?!) but very much take your point about a level playing field.  We do have a very open approach to the science of DTs – for example, outputs from the SPENSER model I discuss are already available through the CDRC at Leeds (www.cdrc.ac.uk) and all the covid models and code we are developing are open-sourced.  Definitely something the Turing would like to build upon in the next phase of Digital Twin- I’m sure CDBB would feel the same way.

Yes – The trust layer of the Gemini Principles comprises of Security, Openness and Quality. This doesn’t remove or reduce innovation and differentiation, my view is a “level playing field” is an essential element for having meaningful competition and driving innovation. 

[Tom Hughes]

4 minutes ago, Richard Bradley said:

Hi Tom, what do I do – simply post questions here?  Thanks Richard

Hi Richard, yes. You can post questions in this conversation thread. Mark, myself and other members of the CDBB team are online between 10:30 and 11:30 to answer them. 

[Tom Hughes]

@Mark Birkin you mention that demographic digital twins enable an exciting programme of academic research with extreme relevance to policy and real-world deployment. As digital twins of both national infrastructure and place based digital twins mature what do you see at the key opportunities for gaining further insights in demographic interaction, change and using data for the delivery of public good.

[Tom Hughes]

Welcome to the start of today’s Digital Twin Talk on Demographic Twins for ‘What if?’ Scenario Planning and a big thank you to @Mark Birkin from the Alan Turing Institute for joining us. We’re looking forward to your thoughts and questions related to Mark’s talk – and maybe posing one or two of our own.

As with all our Twin Talks Mark is online from 10:30am to 11:30am to answer your questions. To join the discussion please add your thoughts by replying to the conversation thread.

[Tom Hughes]

Although I see it tucked into your governance item I wonder if a specific statement about value about could be missing/be beneficial. 

Value: To define how value is created by digital twins and through the secure sharing of information with others.

[Tom Hughes]

Many thanks to @Tom Henderson and everybody on this chat for your comments and questions.

We are now coming to the end of our live discussion, but we will keep this space open and available until the end of the day in case you have further thoughts or questions. We will continue to monitor the discussion during that time, but on a less frequent basis.

We will also add Tom’s video, along with the videos from previous talks, to this page: https://digitaltwinhub.co.uk/digital-twin-talks/

Looking ahead, our next Digital Twin Talk: Demographic Twins for ‘What if?’ Scenario Planning by Mark Birkin of Alan Turing Institute

We will post the video of Mark’s talk on Monday evening and Mark will join us for a live forum discussion on the 18th August between 10:30 and 11:30 am BST.

We are keen for as many people as possible to benefit from this excellent series of talks and discussions. Please share a link to the DT Hub with your contacts and let them know about the Twin Talks.

Thank you all very much again