LIST Takes On Digital Twins For Smarter European Cities
Digital twins are revolutionizing how cities and industries model and optimize their operations. German Castignani, Digital Twin Innovation Centre Manager and AIDA Platform Leader at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), provides a closer look at the digital twin projects taking shape at LIST.
Source : siliconluxembourg.lu
Date de publication : 12/02/2025
What is a digital twin?
A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical asset. That asset could be software, an industrial plant, the entire city, or a production line. To create a digital twin, you need data and models. The digital twin allows us to better understand and monitor physical processes. By integrating live data, it can also predict things using AI, such as short-term and long-term behaviour, and facilitate decision-making through ‘what if’ simulations.
For cities, digital twins are used to test policies, such as infrastructure investments, in a dynamic way. We are now able to use real-time data and a closed-loop system where the decisions made virtually are fed back into physical systems like traffic control.
What is the Citcom.ai project and what are its goals?
CitCom.ai is an initiative from the Digital Europe Programme. It takes advantage of existing research in AI, digital twins, and smart cities to integrate these solutions within a framework that’s replicable across different European cities.
The main challenge was to find our place between the city and the AI and Digital innovators. We aim to show the value of experimentation both to innovators, who often waste resources in pilots without revenue, and to cities, ensuring they adopt solutions that they can manage long-term.
Our ultimate goal is to increase the adoption of data-driven AI solutions in cities and communities. We want to ensure that these solutions are not just technically sound but also compliant with AI regulations.
How does Citcom.ai align with European Union goals for smart cities?
Citcom.ai is one of four Testing and Experimentation Facilities in AI in the EU. It is part of an ecosystem of initiatives, including the Data Space for Smart Cities and Communities (DS4SSCC), the Smart Communities Network, and the upcoming Local Digital Twin Toolbox. Also, a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) on Local Digital Twins towards the citiverse is being launched. All these initiatives align with the EU’s vision of using digital twins to bring citizens into decision-making processes.
What impacts do you expect the Citcom.ai project to have on Luxembourgish mobility solutions?
We’ve run several experiments in Luxembourg, such as one with the city of Differdange, a net-zero city aiming to cut emissions by 2030. We used a digital twin to quantify the impact of installing new PV chargers using solar energy. Another experiment focused on the bus network to assess the feasibility of vehicle-integrated photovoltaics (VIPV) for optimizing bus range and energy use. It involved creating an irradiation model for moving objects, simulating how much energy can be collected.
What are the main research topics and goals of LIST’s Digital Twin Innovation Centre?
The Digital Twin Innovation Centre is an open forum for digital twin projects. It supports researchers from various sectors—environmental sciences, space resources, energy, materials science, and more—to develop models for their projects using a common approach. For now, most of our work focuses on city-wide issues like mobility, energy transition, pollution, and climate resilience. We are also working on industrial projects such as wastewater plants and supply chain optimization.
Louis Juste
www.siliconluxembourg.lu/list-takes-on-digital-twins-for-smarter-european-cities/
