Imagine a virtual Jacksonville, viewable through an augmented reality headset, that shows the intricate aspects of the city in 3D. This is the future of sustainable urban planning, and the University of Florida is leading a project that will leverage artificial intelligence and digital twin technologies to make it happen. By building a virtual model of a section of the city, UF researchers will be able to test future land use and climate scenarios while visualizing infrastructure investments. This information will allow decision makers to see the potential real-life impacts on the lives of residents and help city planners adapt to changing conditions. And the Jacksonville pilot may be just the beginning.
Building Florida's Digital Twin
Florida faces an aging infrastructure, a changing environment, and rapid population growth. Digital twin technologies can help decision makers make data-driven choices to sustain Florida's natural resources, protect the community's health, ensure economic prosperity, and enhance the benefits of future urban planning projects.
As the state's flagship land-grant research university, UF is capitalizing on its research capabilities in order to benefit the state of Florida. Last year, UF President Ben Sasse allocated $1.75 million in strategic funding from the Florida Legislature to build Florida's Digital Twin. The project – led by Christine Angelini, Ph.D., an associate professor and director of the UF Center for Coastal Solutions – aims to harness digital twin and AI technologies that will help the state plan for uncertain scenarios.
Using the area of Jacksonville as a pilot location, Florida's Digital Twin will reveal details and insights about buildings, roads, and wastewater infrastructure. Jacksonville was chosen to kickstart the project due to the city's close relationships with UF Health researchers and local stakeholders.
And UF certainly has what it takes to build digital twins. HiPerGator, the fastest supercomputer in U.S. higher education, is on the UF campus, as are multiple experts in AI disciplines. UF also has a partnership with the AI tech company NVIDIA, and access to big data on Florida's environmental, health, and infrastructure systems.
"We realized that, as an institution, we have interdisciplinary breadth and depth, but we're not channeling that expertise to deliver as much of an impact to the state of Florida as we possibly can," Angelini said.
To channel that expertise, various units on campus have joined forces to collaborate on the digital twin project: the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering; the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; the College of Medicine; the College of Journalism and Communications; the College of Design, Construction and Planning; UF Research; and UF Health.
