From October 14 to 18, the 4th Digital Twin International Conference (DigiTwin 2024) was held at Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Initiated by Professor Tao Fei's team from Beihang University, the conference has previously been held for three sessions in China, Australia, and France.
This year's event was jointly hosted by Digital Twin (an international journal supervised by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and hosted by Beihang University), Politecnico di Milano, and Taylor & Francis Group, and co-organized by the Digital Twin International Research Center of Beihang's International Institute for Interdisciplinary and Frontiers.
DigiTwin 2024, themed “Make More Digital Twins,” aims to establish a high-level platform for international exchange across multidisciplinary fields, including computer science, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, biomedical science, environmental science, and economics. The event brought together renowned scholars from around the world to share cutting-edge research and guide the development of digital twin technology in innovative and interdisciplinary scientific and engineering fields.
The conference adopted a hybrid format, with three offline venues in Politecnico di Milano in Italy, Beihang University in China, and Purdue University in the U.S., and 19 online venues, attracting more than 2,600 experts and scholars from 22 countries, including Italy, China, the United States, Germany, France, Singapore, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Brazil, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Cyprus, Greece, the Netherlands, and Finland. The opening ceremony was co-hosted by Professor Andrea Matta from Politecnico di Milano and Professor Fei Tao from Beihang University.
At the opening ceremony on the morning of October 15, Professor Andrea Matta from Politecnico di Milano, Professor Alain Bernard from Centrale Nantes, Mr. ANG Eng Guan from Taylor & Francis Group, and Professor Tao Fei from Beihang University delivered speeches respectively.
Professor Andrew Y.C. Nee, founding fellow of the Singapore Academy of Engineering and fellow of SME and CIRP from the National University of Singapore, Professor Nabil Anwer, CIRP/AET Fellow from Université Paris-Saclay in France, Professor Fu Zhao, ASME Fellow from Purdue University in the U.S., Professor Jan C. Aurich, academician of the German Academy of Engineering from Kaiserslautern University of Technology, Professor Stefan Pickl, academician of both the German Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Engineering from the University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Professor Daniel Krob, president of CESAMES and CEO of Systemic Intelligence and fellow of INCOSE, Dr. Ang Liu, ASME Fellow from the University of New South Wales in Australia, Mr. Mariani Livio, Director of Simulation Data and Digital Twins at Altair in Italy, delivered their keynote speeches respectively.
From October 15 to 17, 22 sessions were held, with 196 experts and scholars delivering insightful presentations on key topics, covering digital twin technologies, manufacturing systems, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, marine equipment, digital twin networks, additive manufacturing, smart construction, twin cities, and healthcare.
The main venue at Politecnico di Milano was chaired by vice-chairs of DigiTwin 2024: Professor Hu Tianliang from Shandong University, Professor Liu Xiaojun from Southeast University, Professor Ma Dedong from Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, and Associate Professor Cheng Ying from Beihang University.
The awards and closing ceremony took place on the morning of October 17. Chaired by Professor Liu Xiaojun, 18 awards were presented in five categories, including the DigiTwin 2024 Highly Cited Paper Award, Best Paper Award, Best Presentation Award (including Best Student Presentation), Enterprise Innovation Application Award, Outstanding Scientist Award, Young Scientist Award, and Best Organizational Contribution Award.
After the ceremony, representatives from the publishers of Digital Twin and Digital Engineering introduced the journals and sincerely invited scholars and experts to submit articles.
Professor Stefan Pickl and Dr. Wang Wei from the University of Skövde in Sweden, provided a preview of the upcoming DigiTwin 2025 and DigiTwin 2026 conferences.
In the closing ceremony, Professor Andrea Matta summarized the conference and expressed heartfelt thanks to all experts and scholars for their enthusiastic participation.
DigiTwin 2024 brought together innovative forces from academia and industry, fostering multidisciplinary and cross-field research on the theoretical and practical applications of digital twins. DigiTwin 2025, will be held in Munich, Germany.
Written by: Wang Zitong
Reviewed by: Tao Fei
Edited by: Jia Aiping
Translated by: Han Xu
