Distinguished speaker: Karen Willcox on digital twins

From: Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Date: Friday, March 28  

Time: Talk from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Coffee and pastries will be available in the lobby 10-10:30 a.m.

Location:  Steger Hall Conference Center, 1015 Life Science Circle, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0477

Abstract: Digital twins represent the next frontier in the impact of computational science on grand challenges across science, technology and society. A digital twin is a computational model or set of coupled models that evolves over time to persistently represent the structure, behavior, and context of a unique physical system, process, or biological entity. Bidirectional interaction between the physical system and its virtual counterpart is central to the digital twin concept. This talk will highlight my group's work to develop mathematical foundations and scalable algorithms for robust, reliable digital twins at scale. I will illustrate our approaches across the vastly different domains of space systems, civil infrastructure and personalized medicine, thus highlighting the potential of digital twins to advance national security, fuel economic competitiveness, and improve health outcomes across society.

Biography: Karen E. Willcox is director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, associate vice president for research, and professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Before joining the Oden Institute in 2018, she spent 17 years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she served as the founding co-director of the MIT Center for Computational Engineering and the associate head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Prior to joining the MIT faculty, she worked at Boeing Phantom Works with the Blended-Wing-Body aircraft design group. She is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), fellow of the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM), and member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). She was the recipient of the 2023 J.T. Oden Medal and the 2024 Theodore von Karman Prize.