Digital Twin of UQ St Lucia Campus

By University of Queensland’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning | 22 January 2024

The research presented in this blog was conducted by the University of Queensland as part of State Library's Purpose Built exhibition.

Project Overview

Rapid progress in digitalisation and artificial intelligence is providing numerous opportunities for human-interaction research. Connecting the real world to the digital world using digital twins is one such opportunity that is more feasible than ever before thanks to increased availability of sensor information, allowing new applications in many different areas to be explored.

Digital twin overlay of the UQ St Lucia campus

For this research project, existing data from various locations at UQ’s St Lucia Campus was utilised, and new data generated, to model, simulate and forecast changes around campus. These models include flood simulations, mobility around campus and how it’s affected by construction, building occupancy assessment with spatial data, and mapping of building age in relation to campus infrastructure.

Point cloud image of Jocks Rd with the AEB on the left

This facilitated the discovery of key opportunities for efficiency in campus management, such as the use of 3D point-clouds for Properties and Facilities, and also developed reproducible workflows to enable adaptation at scale. Additionally, it highlighted the benefits of cross-departmental collaboration in the University as staff from Architecture, Civil Engineering, EECS and Properties & Facilities collaborated to generate optimal outcomes.

This project demonstrates what the future of built environment management can look like. It showcases the possibilities of digital twin technology in the strategic management of the Campus and its facilities, and presents UQ a pilot study for broader-scale application of spatially enabled digital twins at the urban scale.

Research Outputs

Journal Articles

Islam Mashaly, Fred Fialho Teixeira, Shafiei, Maryam and Jurij Karlovsek ‘Implementation of an Academic Campus Digital Twin’, TECHNOLOGY | ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN Journal - under revision

Islam Mashaly, Fred Fialho Teixeira, Shafiei, Maryam and Jurij Karlovsek ‘Reconsidering Digital Twins’, International Journal of Architectural Computing - under revision

Conference Papers

Islam Mashaly, Fred Fialho Teixeira, Maryam Shafiei and Jurij Karlovsek ‘Reconsidering Digital Twins’, The SIGraDi Conference, Accelerated Landscapes Graz (Nov 29-Dec1) - under revision

Islam Mashaly, Fred Fialho Teixeira, Maryam Shafiei and Jurij Karlovsek ‘Implementation of an Academic Campus Digital Twin’, Acadia 2023: Habits of the Anthropocene, Denver (Oct 26-28, 2023) - under revision

Fred Fialho Teixeira, Islam Mashaly and Jurij Karlovsek ‘Reconsidering Digital Twins’, The 41st eCAADe Conference (Sep ’22)

Fred Fialho Teixeira, Islam Mashaly and Jurij Karlovsek ‘Implementation of an Academic Campus Digital Twin’, International Conference on Smart Cities and Urban Strategies (ICSCUS) (Jun’ 22)