From smart buildings to warships to entire factories and even the human blood system, the ability to create a real-time digital representation of an asset - a so called digital twin - is already revolutionising many areas of technology.

This special online panel discussion - hosted by The Engineer magazine and Babcock International Group - will bring together experts from across industry to explore the concept of the digital twin in more detail and to provide readers with valuable insight into how and why they should go about deploying this innovative technology.

Drawing on best practice case studies from different sectors, the discussion will look at examples of the digital twin in action; explore the challenges and benefits of implementing and maintaining a digital twin and highlight findings and thinking that that can be shared across sectors.

Key discussion areas / Agenda
• The broad benefits of digital twins
• Introducing a digital twin for the first time
• Retrofitting digital twins on to legacy assets
• Applications across the asset lifecycle
• Bringing the supply chain on board
• Systems to systems thinking – integrating disparate digital twins
• Understanding what digital skills will be required for your business
• The role of digital twins in sustainability programmes