Digital Twins for Sustainable Development Goals (DT4SDG) is a new research lab dedicated to technology innovation for realising SDGs with an initial focus on sustainable transportation and energy.
Our lab is founded on a multidisciplinary research approach led by social science, shaped by domain experts, and enabled by technology innovation.
Due to the complexity of such a holistic research approach, traditional modelling methods no longer apply. A digital twin (DT) is a virtual replica of physical assets enabling data-driven modelling of the status and behaviour of physical components in the system, and of the interrelation between these.
A DT is a promising method for modelling SDG problems with multifaceted concerns, and for enabling a reliable and cost-effective anticipatory SDG solution. An initial project milestone is setting up a testbed in Tower Hamlets to be used for IoT data collection to animate the digital twin in the design of SDG solutions and for the validation of these methods.
The lab aims to foster industry support and academic collaboration, and to write multidisciplinary large research grants related to transportation and energy that benefit from the testbed and DT to usher effective research in SDG.