On the 27th of November 2023, Associate Professor Rolando Chacon, Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), partner and Work package leader in ASHVIN,  hosted a workshop session at the Digital Sciences Initiative of the University of Sydney in Australia. The Digital Sciences Initiative is an ambitious vision to build world-class capabilities for Sydney and New South Wales more broadly that delivers research and education across the span of digital sciences and technologies. 

The objective of this session was to introduce the participants to using very simple digital twin technologies to educators with the aim of fostering potential digital initiatives for their own courses. Under the instructions of Professor Chacon, the participants got the occasion to create a basic model of a digital twin representation using open-source Hardware, open-source Software.

About 60 participants enrolled in the course. Educators and researchers from the University of Sydney of various disciplines attended. In particular, attendees interested in embedding new tools to their own courses ignited a debate during the workshops about introducing digital twins in their own courses representing both a need and a challenge. Measurements and Mathematical Models need to be coupled educationally using friendly tools in order to smoothly bridge the existing physical-to-virtual knowledge gap. The development of behavioural digital twins of simple systems represents a realistic pedagogical vehicle in their physical-to-virtual journey.