Centres for Doctoral Training

Drawing on the power of modern computing, increasingly complex models pave the way to new discoveries that create the building blocks for scientific and technical transformations underpinning all aspects of our lives, society and economy. Impressive advancements of the last few decades increasingly cover areas that until recently have been regarded as elusive. Paving the future are digital replica of physical systems, also known as “digital twins”. Its benefits to industry and society are increasingly far reaching, with implications ranging from revolutionised healthcare solutions through patient-specific risk prediction and treatment to the increasing use of digital twins in the aerospace industry in place of expensive real-world experiments, for example. What hinders further progress is an acute quantitative skills shortage, which our CDT uniquely addresses.

Our vision is to train the next generation of quantitative scientists with the skills to calibrate digital twins for real-world real-time decision support in engineering, physical, physiological, and ecological applications. This will enable them to lead innovative research developments in a range of industrial sectors ranging from the aerospace and automotive industries to medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and the environment. Our CDT will open the door to a diverse range of innovations, such as the use of digital twins and machine learning to solve sensing, navigation, control and optimisation problems; developing digital twins for safe hydrogen storage systems; developing digital conjoined twins to optimise medical devices in a patient-specific manner; supporting the development of personalised healthcare solutions and using digitally conjoined twins to elucidate infection and infestation patterns.