Students who enroll in UCF’s new graduate certificate in digital twins can explore the answers to these questions and a whole lot more. The 12-credit-hour program, launching this fall in the School of Modeling, Simulation and Training (SMST), will teach students to design, implement and analyze advanced digital twin systems that can mimic the behavior and performance of their physical counterparts.

“The program emphasizes innovation and hands-on learning, preparing students to apply cutting-edge digital twin technologies to real-world challenges across sectors such as smart cities, healthcare, aerospace, manufacturing and defense,” SMST Interim Director and Program Coordinator Ghaith Rabadi says. “The program is strategically designed to strengthen Central Florida’s digital twin talent pipeline and offers students access to industry-aligned training and career-ready skills. Graduates will emerge equipped to drive transformative digital solutions in high-demand fields.”

Various industries already utilize digital twins to test and analyze products or environments before they are created. For example, NASA uses digital twins to predict the behavior of spacecraft and increase the success of future missions. Siemens Healthcare employs digital twins of organs to help doctors better understand their physiology and to develop more targeted treatments.

Industry professionals who want to develop skills in this type of digital modeling are welcome to apply to the program. A background in engineering or computer science is not required, although an undergraduate degree from a STEM-related discipline and some experience with programming are preferred.

Assistant Professor Soheil Sabri says that graduates of the program may be better positioned to pursue job titles such as digital twin engineer, simulation analyst, systems integration specialist, smart infrastructure developer or digital transformation consultant across a wide range of industries.

“With the growing adoption of digital twin technologies in industries such as aerospace, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, transportation and national defense, graduates will be equipped to lead efforts in optimizing operations, enhancing predictive maintenance and driving innovation in complex systems,” Sabri says. “The program’s strong emphasis on real-world applications and industry collaboration further enhances graduates’ readiness for impactful, future-forward careers.”

The SMST faculty aims to enroll 10 to 15 students in the first year of the program and already have strong interest from students enrolled in the school’s graduate degrees. The program can be completed online, offering convenience to students who need to balance coursework with a full-time job.

“The program is designed to be accessible to working professionals and students from diverse STEM backgrounds, providing flexible pathways to deepen understanding into emerging fields such as machine learning and artificial intelligence,” Assistant Professor Sean Modesire says. “As digital twins continue to revolutionize sectors from healthcare to aerospace, this program positions UCF at the forefront of preparing the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.”

Other collaborators on the project include Roger Azevedo, Vishnu Prabhu and Bulent Soykan.

The DTC, established in 2020, is a widely recognized authority in digital twin technology. Its members coordinate academic, industry and government efforts to promote consistent standards in areas such as interoperability, vocabulary and architecture related to digital twin technology as it advances in multiple industries.

DTC is also part of a bigger organization, Object Management Group, which is a nonprofit consortium of 27 countries that seeks to develop consistent standards and harmonize terminology to ensure their relevance and applicability for various, evolving technologies.

The agreement between the university and DTC is set to last three years, and then it will come under review to determine its future continuation.

Senior UCF leaders have recognized this collaboration as a significant step forward in leveraging digital twin technology.

“With UCF having a digital twin initiative, I think it’s very important to be connected to the broader community,” says Soheil Sabri, an assistant professor in the digital twin initiative at UCF’s School of Modeling, Simulation and Training. “DTC has more than 200 members around the world. Being part of DTC is helping UCF understand all the challenges in the current state of industry.”

What is a Digital Twin?

A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical object, system or process that uses real-time data to simulate its behavior. Digital twins are valuable for several purposes, such as testing scenarios, predicting performance and identifying potential flaws without the costs and risks associated with real-life testing.

This technology is relatively new, which can lead to a variety of understandings across the industries that employ them.

“With ‘digital twins,’ there are a lot of different definitions, and different groups have their own perceptions of what that concept is,” Sabri says. “Some think digital twin is a tool or a product, and others think it’s a methodology or a process. DTC’s working groups are trying to contribute to the entire community’s understanding of the digital twin and its value to their own sectors.”

Sabri believes UCF can play a leadership role in the DTC domain because of its digital twin initiative.

“It’s a big deal for us to be a part of this consortium and play a leadership role in supporting industry, government and other academic institutions to implement and leverage the work we are doing and collaborating on,” he says.

A Leader in Digital Twins

As a consortium regional branch organizer (RBO), UCF has accepted certain duties in working with its partners, including executing conferences, meetings and awareness efforts.

The university will also help facilitate innovation and ideas by helping develop the digital twin workforce to the market.

“In this region, you can imagine the importance of the digital twin in relation to Kennedy Space Center, the entertainment industry and the defense industry,” Sabri says.

“They’re interested in working with us, and they would like to be part of our journey, especially in the education and training aspects. That’s really important from UCF’s perspective, and we’re in a very strategic position in the U.S. as compared to other RBOs.”

With UCF’s recent addition to DTC, Sabri explained that the university would announce a regional plan to support industry requirements through awareness programs, workshops and professional development in the near future.

“We hope to bring industry’s challenges into our group and make a connection between different industries and the government so we can coordinate innovation in digital twin technology and address some of the challenges those industries are facing,” he says.

�ճ���� received a $1.155 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to establish and launch the new program, which is expected to start in Spring or Fall of 2025. The grant, part of the Department of Education (DOE) Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, or FIPSE, program, started this month. SMST faculty will spend this year developing the new program and the next two years implementing and evaluating it.

The grant will enable UCF to build on its academic and research strengths in digital twins, which are digital replicas of complex real-world systems. By manipulating digital twins, scientists, doctors, urban planners, and others can analyze, predict, optimize, and make real-time decisions on products, processes, and systems.

The new DOE grant will allow UCF to expand educational programs focused on digital twin. Graduate students enrolled in the program would learn about designing, implementing, managing, and creating innovations for digital twin technologies, and they would gain real-life experiences through industry as part of the program.

Along with the $1.155 million in FIPSE funding, UCF will include about 25% in matching funds to bring the total grant to almost $1.5 million.

Ghaith Rabadi, modeling and simulation professor and graduate program director, will lead the certificate program along with SMST faculty members Roger Azevedo, Joe Kider, Sean Mondesire, Soheil Sabri and Bulent Soykan.

“The award further strengthens the digital twin strategic initiative program at UCF and ensures a definitive pathway to educate the next generation in this transformative technology,” says Rabadi. “Graduates will be well-prepared to become leading researchers and innovators in a field rapidly becoming a vital part of our regional and state economies.”

The initiative is crosscutting within the university and will encompass ongoing digital twin research in multiple sectors, including microelectronics, space, multi-domain operations, test, and evaluation, human digital twins, AI-enabled capabilities and machine interface, airports of the future, smart cities, energy infrastructure, and more.

This is UCF’s second federal grant connected with digital twin research. As part of a 2022 Department of Commerce grant awarded to Osceola County and several partners, UCF researchers are replicating the semiconductor production line at the Center for NeoVation in Osceola County, with a goal of increasing productivity and reliability.

Digital twin research is also a focus of UCF’s Strategic Investment Program. Led by Grace Bochenek ’98PhD, director of SMST, that collaboration also includes faculty from engineering and computer science, psychology, and arts and humanities. The goal is to develop a digital twin framework and tools that can be adapted by governments, industry, and academia based on their needs. Potential applications include healthcare, smart cities, transportation and defense.