IUCRC Planning Grant Virginia Tech: Center for Digital Twin Research, Innovation and Collaboration Hub (DT-RICH)

A Digital Twin is a virtual replica of real-world objects and processes intended to enable efficient and lower risk decision making by supporting testing in the virtual world prior to real world implementation. This is a planning proposal to create a Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for Digital Twin Research, Innovation, and Collaboration Hub (DT-RICH). Upon successful completion of the planning phase, Virginia Tech (VT) researchers will join with researchers from other participant universities to propose the full IUCRC. DT-RICH aims to enhance Digital Twin translational capability with better digital replication, prediction, and what-if testing for optimal solutions. These advancements will strengthen the ability to answer complex scientific questions, tackle engineering challenges, and improve human life. DT-RICH will systematically advance Digital Twin research and innovation by addressing cross-domain challenges, developing open standards for interoperability, and creating infrastructure for heterogeneous data fusion to better replicate real-world problems. The center will leverage spatiotemporal computing to integrate domain knowledge and AI/ML simulations, enhancing prediction capabilities, and enabling improved forecasting and decision-making. It will focus on quantifying uncertainty to build trust, examining digital twin’s full lifecycle to ensure reliability and sustainability, and adopting a socio-technical approach that incorporates ethics and community involvement. Additionally, DT-RICH will explore human-environment interactions, emphasizing well-being and sustainability. DT-RICH will engage with active members from industries to develop methodologies and technologies that translate research into commercialization. Collaborating with those members, the team will adopt research findings to enhance operations, products, and services, while leveraging partnerships to publicize achievements. Open-source software will be made available through GitHub under Apache 2.0 licenses, and fundamental research findings will be shared with members and via journals and conferences. The team also aims to create new courses focusing on digital twin technology that reaches all students, from high school students to postdoctoral scholars. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.