#go lawrence

For week 3 our team headed to Lawrence in the morning and began exploring the city. We began by walking to the arts center right by our building and met a wonderful woman who directs the art gallery. She invited us to her upcoming show, and spoke highly of the community of Lawrence and how everyone works together to accomplish the things that their city can benefit from. Talking to her really validated our presence in Lawrence, and made me excited to begin our community work. We continued exploring and saw several outdoor art installations that spoke to the diverse cultural embrace meant within the city. We walked around antique shops and then ended our exploration with a delicious lunch at a Dominican cafe.

Digital twins are BIM model replicas of items in the physical world. The models are then uploaded into the metaverse and synchronized to their physical counterparts through sensors and loT connectors to create real-time digital twins. Suppose there is a change to the physical element, the digital twin updates in real time. The digital twin is the building block of the metaverse. With digital twins, cities can create roads, rails, and infrastructures for analysis; companies can produce working environments for their employees. Commerce can create stores to create a customer shopping experience; institutions can host lectures, classes, and office hours. The digital twin will also allow simulations and training opportunities to consider predictions for life safety in failed infrastructure or weather-related climate events. In addition, digital twins will profoundly affect the AEC industry. The metaverse and digital twins will allow projects to be accessible by the entire team virtually. Every team member will meet in the metaverse for walk-throughs and can interact with the design. Greg Demchak, Senior Director, Digital Innovation Lab, Bentley Systems, explains that "this simulation will allow for a one-to-one sense of the actual scale of a 3D model." The benefits of this simulation will lead to better outcomes for health and safety, along with more efficient coordination, procedures, scheduling, and client expectations.

People are looking to digital twins with excitement and anticipation because of their impact on how we predict and maintain our environments, buildings, and roadway infrastructure, along with health, and life safety.

Last day at the Lawrence office was bittersweet. We got a crash course on using saws to cut the old wood floors and patched up some areas with new floors. As daylight quickly came to an end, we cleaned up the space and locked up. Now it's set for next semester's fellows!