“Beyond the Buzz: Exploring Digital Twins & AI for Scalable Impact”
There is growing interest in both digital twins and AI across the water industry, but the majority of utilities and the supporting ecosystem remain in the exploratory and proof of concept phase.
In this interactive workshop, hosted by the SWAN Digital Twin Group and AI Community of Practice, join us (and Buzz Lightyear) to hear about practical digital twin implementations, unique advances in AI (generative and non-generative), and how the pairing of these technologies can support organisations in reducing costs, accelerating deployment, and providing expanded value across critical application areas.
It’s a “choose your own adventure”, so buckle up and get ready to go to Digital Twinfinity and Beyond (AI)!
SWAN Members can login to the SWAN website to access all the Workshop materials. Conference Attendees can access the materials HERE.
AGENDA – May 27th
9:00–9:10 Workshop Welcome & Context
- Shirley Ben-Dak, Senior Advisor (SWAN Forum)
9:10–9:30 Keynote: “Digital Twins for Urban Water Evolution: The Digital Transformation Project of Aguas de Alicante within Spain’s Recovery Plan”
- Ignacio Casals, Director of Innovation (Aguas de Alicante, Spain) – View Bio
9:30–10:25 Panel: “Scaling Digital Twins with an AI Mindset”
Moderator: Lindsey Stuvick, Sustainable Resources Officer (Moulton Niguel Water District, US) & SWAN Digital Twin Group Co-Chair
- Dr. Li Xu, Deputy Director of the Information Center (Shenzhen Environmental Water Group Co., Ltd, China) “Digital Transformation Practices and Achievements of Shenzhen Water”
- Jeremy Yi, Global Business Director (Movements Inc., Korea) “Scaling Smart Water with Digital Twin Technology: A Pilot in Phu Hoi Ward, Hue City”
- Mark Wilde, Modelbuilder (Vitens, Netherlands) “Scaling the Digital Twin by developing a modelbuilder tool at Vitens”
10:25–10:35 SWAN Digital Twin Work Group Update
- Chengzi Chew, Chief Intrepreneur (Grundfos) & SWAN Digital Twin Group Co-Chair
10:35–11:00 Networking & Refreshments Break
11:00-11:10 “Is It a Model or Is It a Digital Twin?” High-Level Findings from AWWA Survey on Water Distribution Technology
- James P. Cooper, Global Director – Water Optimisation (Arcadis)
11:10-11:20 Digital Twin and AI: Young Love or Arranged Marriage?
- Prof. Edward Keedwell, Professor of Artificial Intelligence (University of Exeter) & SWAN AI Community of Practice Co-Chair
11:20-11:30 Choose Your Adventure: Context for Interactive Roundtables
- Shayna Ramboz, Chief Operating Officer (SWAN Forum)
11:30-12:15 Interactive Roundtables: Round 1 (Small Town mindset -> getting the basics down, including specific challenges)
In this interactive first session, after getting to know your table participants, zoom in on a challenge related to the roundtable topic and how digital twins and AI play a fundamental role in addressing that challenge. Role-play as a small utility exploring this perhaps for the first time. What are some of the basics to understand? How can we move from exploration to consideration? How is success measured/quantified/validated? Objective: Please narrow down to one challenge statement.
- Getting to Network Optimisation and Dynamic Control
Chengzi Chew, Chief Intrepreneur (Grundfos) & SWAN Digital Twin Group Co-Chair
Lindsey Stuvick, Sustainable Resources Officer (Moulton Niguel Water District, US) & SWAN Digital Twin Group Co-Chair - Digital Decision Support Systems in Managing Extreme Events
Ignacio Casals, Director of Innovation (Aguas de Alicante, Spain)
Paloma Akerman, Water Cycle Digitalisation Solutions Lead (Autodesk) - Operational Efficiency + Predictive Analytics
Athena Zitrou, Head of Business Analytics & Sharon Hamilton, Intelligent Control Centre Manager (Scottish Water, UK) “Smart Water Operations: The ‘ICC to ROC’ Transformation Journey” - Water Efficiency
Susana Garcia, Water Supply Engineer (Águas e Energia do Porto, Portugal) “InnoWave – The Power of Digital and Artificial Intelligence in Water Efficiency”
Anna Makri, Chief Digital Officer (Olympios Group) - Customer Support
Emma Harris, Head of Operational Services (Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, UK)
Sahil Chaini, UK&I Regional Market Director (Transcend Software) “Failing Fast: Accelerating the path from needs identification to solution set” - Asset Management
Dan Lavelle, Smart Water – Product Manager (Thames Water, UK) “Scaling Smart Water Network Digital Twin: The North East London Smart System Proof of Concept”
Henrik Sorensen, Digital Solutions Lead (DHI) “Generating impact with holistic and scalable digital twins” - Water Quality
Andreu Fargas, Chief Innovation Officer (Consorci Aigües de Tarragona, Spain)
Jordi Raich, Sr. Manager Analytical Solutions (Badger Meter) “The use of on-line monitoring to improve control and operations in the drinking water treatment plant and the distribution network – A real case in the province of Tarragona (Spain)” - Knowledge Retention + Training
Aleksi Komu, Chief Business Development Officer (Thinglink) “Transforming Water Management Training with Augmented Reality: Lessons from WaterLAB”
Martin Korevaar, Researcher (KWR Water Research Institute) “A Holistic Roadmap for Digital Twinning – a sectoral view and application to a full-scale ultrafiltration unit” - Emergency Response + Long-Term Forecasting/Planning
Dr. Alexander Sinske, Head of Technology (GLS Consulting) “Integrating Advanced Statistical Regression with Traditional Methods for Water Demand Forecasting”
Samantha Sloan, Head of Operational Intelligence (United Utilities, UK) - Workforce Recruitment
Wouter Huisman, Program Manager Sofia – Digital Twin (Brabant Water, Netherlands)
Eric Bindler, Sr. Manager of Strategic Insights and SWAN Forum Council Member (Xylem) - Agentic AI
Idel Montalvo, Founder and CEO (Ingeniousware)
Sven Bengtsson, Development Engineer (NSVA, Sweden)
12:15-13:15 Lunch Sponsored by Grundfos & Autodesk
13:15-14:00 Interactive Roundtables: Round 2 (Mid-size city -> Moving along, refining processes; wheels in motion)
From the challenge statement, move to the active consideration stage with your table participants. Moving beyond the basics towards the middle-ground, what are the processes to consider to fully embrace DT/AI, what other considerations need to be agreed upon? Exit strategies/continuity plans? What are the specific success factors?
14:00-15:00 Interactive Roundtables: Round 3 (Thinking big, scaling, etc.)
What does scaling DT/AI technologies actually look like? Thinking big, what would the ideal scenario be to best capture results? Try to visualise this together with your group in the form of curating some type of ‘prototype’ to present to a large utility representative for buy-in. Be prepared to present this briefly after the networking break.
15:00–15:30 Networking & Refreshments Break
15:30–16:20 Rapid Fire Recaps
16:20–16:30 Closing Remarks
Thank you to our Sponsors!
