Bentley Systems, Incorporated(Nasdaq: BSY), the infrastructure engineering software company, haselevated its participation inthe Digital Twin Consortium by becoming a founding member. Having been a groundbreaker member since day one of the consortium’s launch in May of 2020, Bentley will deepen its collaboration as a founding member and become a member of its steering committee.

Defining Digital Twins

One waythat Bentley is helping advance the Digital Twin Consortium’s missionis through defining the terminology used to describe digital twins. Casey Mullen, distinguished architect, strategic technologies at Bentley Systems, has contributed his expertise as a lead author of the Digital Twin Consortium’s definition of a digital twin. Mullen helped unveil the new definition during a panel discussion at the IOT Solutions World Congress on December 3, 2020.

The consortium’s digital twin definition is:

A digital twin is a virtual representation of real-world entities and processes, synchronized at a specified frequency and fidelity.

• Digital twin systems transform business by accelerating holistic understanding, optimal decision-making, and effective action.
• Digital twins use real-time and historical data to represent the past and present and simulate predicted futures.
• Digital twins are motivated by outcomes, tailored to use cases, powered by integration, built on data, guided by domain knowledge, and implemented in IT/OT systems.

“I’ve enjoyed collaborating with representatives from diverse industries in the consortium’s Technology, Terminology, and Taxonomy Working Group to develop a set of practical definitions to inform those who are acquiring or implementing digital twins,” said Mullen.

Steering the Way

As a founding member, Bentley is also contributing its advice and technology expertise to the Digital Twin Consortium’s steering committee. Adam Klatzkin, vice president, iTwin Platform, at Bentley Systems,and Mullenare helping advance the Digital Twin Consortium’sstrategic roadmap, working groups, and governanceas members of the consortium’s steering committee. 

“We are delighted that Bentley is a founding member of Digital Twin Consortium and is also a member of our steering committee,” said Dr. Richard Soley, executive director, Digital Twin Consortium. “The consortium looks forward to high-level guidance on digital twin technologies and continued contributions based on Bentley’s experience and knowledge of the infrastructure industry.”

An Open Platform for Digital Twins

Bentley’s collaboration with Digital Twin Consortium and its global ecosystem of digital twin users underscores its commitment to advancingopen solutions for digital twins. Bentleyprovides iTwin.js, an open-source, software developer library for creatingdigital twinsolutions for infrastructure. Bentley is also a member ofbuildingSMART International’s Digital Twin Working Group.

Bentleyrecently expanded its digital twin offerings with the iTwin Platform, a new platform-as-a-service offering for developers with openness as aguiding principle. The platform supportsa broadrange of design tools—Bentley andthird-party—and file interchange formats including IFC.Klatzkin said, “The iTwin platform provides an open foundation for creating digital twincapabilities for modeling, simulation, project delivery,asset performance, and much more.”

To jump-start awareness and adoption of the iTwin digital twin platform, Bentley recently launched the iTwin Partner Program, the iTwin Ventures Fund, and hosted the inaugural iTwin Developer Conference.