Session

Track: Application & Implementation

Are Digital Twins Ready for Takeoff? Trends and Implementation Challenges in the AEC Industry
Sonali Wadhwa

Digital twins have emerged as a popular term in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, often hailed as a transformative innovation. With a global market value exceeding $16.8 billion and a projected compound annual growth rate of 36% between 2024 and 2030, this rapidly expanding technology is drawing significant attention from stakeholders.

However, despite the excitement, a lack of a clear and consistent definition of digital twins makes it difficult for facility owners to develop a clear vision and roadmap for their implementation.

Some early adopters have embraced digital twins and invested in research and development, while many facility owners remain skeptical, seeing it as just another industry buzz term. For facility owners, the perceived benefits of digital twins—increased operational efficiency, sustainability, and improved decision-making through data analytics—often are overshadowed by the challenges of implementation.

To fully capitalize on digital twins, facility owners must develop a holistic vision, understand how data is collected and organized, and ensure that relevant data is transferred efficiently across stakeholders and phases of the project.

Coda takes a case study approach to demonstrate the real-world applications of digital twins in complex facilities, such as those in the healthcare, transportation, institutional, and federal sectors. These case studies illustrate how digital twins can be customized based on the maturity of the facility owner’s vision and resources. By working with owners to create a clear roadmap and define processes for data collection, the presentation discusses implementation strategies that ensure the digital twin is tailored to each facility’s specific needs.

Through the lens of a facility manager seeking digital transformation, Coda’s approach highlights the many challenges of adopting digital twins, including the issue of data loss during project development. The presentation breaks down digital twins into their core components, explaining how each piece of data can be collected, organized, and integrated into a common data environment for use in operations.

The presentation also addresses broader industry trends and barriers to the adoption of digital twins, including an aging workforce and a lack of shared understanding about the technology. Coda outlines a foundation for implementing digital twins, illustrated through case studies, providing a roadmap for the AEC industry to realize the full potential of this transformative technology.

The Importance of Standardized Data for Your Digital Twin
TJ Meehan

Many building owners are starting their transition to digital twins.

There are a plethora of use cases for a digital twin, but having standardized, accurate digital models as your foundation is key to being successful. It sometimes can be challenging to know what to ask for in a model and know that you are getting one that is useful.

Come see best practices for creating your own modeling standards and ensuring you are efficiently receiving valuable models. We will discuss examples of the right and wrong ways to define these standards and go over tips and best practices. Then, we will discover ways you can perform quick model compliance checking (QC'ing).