Conference: NSF-FHWA Workshop on Utilization of Digital Twins for Resilience Integration into Highway Infrastructure Asset Management

This award funds a workshop that opens a dialogue between civil engineers, computer scientists, and earth systems scientists on the potential of digital twins for highway transportation assets. Digital twins go beyond traditional simulators by integrating real-time sensor data with detailed models of the physical world. They provide rapid, actionable insights that influence both automated control and human-in-the-loop decision-making in a variety of critical applications. The workshop has the potential to improve the resilience and efficiency of the nation’s highway transportation infrastructure. The workshop has strong support from the Federal Highway Administration. The invitation-only workshop brings together experts in infrastructure assets, who have understanding of needs and challenges in their domain and have access to data necessary for the digital twin development, with experts in digital twin and simulation technologies, and advanced systems modeling. The workshop aims to spearhead the development of digital twins that would allow transportation system operators to manage risks at relevant scales, support evidence-based decisions across time horizons, from moment-to-moment operations to long-term planning, lifecycle management, and budget programming. In doing so, digital twins can substantially enhance the safety, reliability, and economic vitality of the transportation network. 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.