Using Simulation and Digital Twins to Innovate: Are we Getting Smarter?

Paper in proceeding, 2021

Digital Twins have recently emerged as a major new area of innovation. Digital Twins are often found at the core of 'smart' solutions that have also emerged as major areas of innovation. Modeling and Simulation (MS) approaches create a model of a real-world system that is linked to data sources and is used to simulate and predict the behavior of its real-world counterpart. On the face of it Digital Twins and MS appear to be similar, if not the same. Is this actually the case? Are the two fields really separate or is Digital Twin research re-inventing the 'MS wheel'? To investigate these relationships, in this panel we will explore some contemporary innovations with Digital Twins and discuss whether or not Digital Twins is a contemporary 'refresh' or 'rebranding' of MS or if there are exciting new synergies.