LOG6310E - Digital Twin Engineering
Digital Twins are an emerging topic in both industry and academia. But what are Digital Twins (DTs), and how can we engineer them?
This course answers both questions through hands-on labs, real-world case studies, and team projects, where participants build a working Digital Twin from the ground up. Offered every Winter term at Polytechnique Montréal by Dr. Bentley Oakes (Department of Computer and Software Engineering), in English.
The course welcomes senior undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers from any discipline. No prior DT experience is needed. Some familiarity with Python, Docker, and Git is useful for the lab sessions, but support is available for those newer to these tools.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to define, design, build, and deploy a working Digital Twin, thus apply systems engineering theory directly to a complex system of your own choosing. Past student projects have spanned many domains as shown below.
Concretely, participants will be able to:
- Define what a Digital Twin (DT) is and their role in different domains
- Explain the processes of engineering DTs, their architecture, and components
- Understand the relation between the DT and the real system, including communication, sensing, and possible insights/actions
- Discuss DT services such as visualization and optimization, and their advantages
- Develop and deploy a DT service on a DT platform and/or build a custom DT
Course Projects
The following are the course projects from the Winter 2025 edition of the class. One project was developed into a published scientific article at EDTconf, demonstrating the high quality of work produced by students.
Monitors and controls a beer fermentation process using Arduino sensors, a sampling chamber, and an electronic hydrometer. DT services include safety monitoring, closed-loop control, analysis, and Unity 3D visualization.
A digital twin of a robotic arm with services for physics simulation, singularity detection, 3D visualization, deviation monitoring, and emergency stop — enabling safe real-time operation and anomaly detection.
A digital twin of a smart waste collection system-of-systems, modelling a city with truck fleets, adaptive traffic lights, and disturbance scenarios. Supports bidirectional feedback and adaptive behaviour.
Overview Truck-stopping Smart traffic lights City disturbance
Monitors the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) bus fleet in real-time using live GPS data, with a 3D route visualization, telemetry validation service, and notification service for anomalies.
Models permafrost freeze/thaw dynamics using finite element methods (two-phase Stefan problem), with real sensor data, a monitoring service, and 3D visualization of subsurface temperature evolution.
Explores graph databases (Neo4j and TachosDB) for modelling and querying failure propagation in DT systems, with a RabbitMQ communication layer and Godot 3D visualization of building failures.
Course Content
The course focuses on a practical system — an incubator (a heater in a box) — as a running case study. We examine the perspectives, theory, technology, and processes for creating a virtual representation of this system, and develop valuable DT services such as visualization, optimization, and anomaly detection.
Each week features interactive lectures with real-world DT examples and discussions. Every second week, participants complete one of six hands-on lab sessions — small assignments to build familiarity with DT technologies and services. In team-based projects, participants apply their learning to develop their own DT with DT services ranging from machine learning, formal verification, to game-engine visualization. A final exam consolidates the theoretical concepts.
Topics Covered
- Definitions, examples, benefits, and application areas of Digital Twins
- DTs vs. digital shadows vs. digital models
- DT platforms and DT realization
- DT components: services, enablers, models, and data
- Processes and metrics for DT Engineering
- Modelling and simulation principles
- Co-simulation
- Communication and sensing
- Visualization, monitoring, and formal verification
- Advanced DT services
- DT reporting
Parts of this course are based on the textbook The Engineering of Digital Twins by John Fitzgerald, Cláudio Gomes, and Peter Gorm Larsen. Some slides and material have also been repurposed from the corresponding course at Aarhus University, Denmark.
Winter 2026 Schedule
| Week | Date | Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 9 | Introduction to Digital Twins | |
| 2 | Jan 16 | DT engineering and the Incubator case study | |
| 3 | Jan 23 | Modelling and simulation intro | |
| 4 | Jan 30 | Modelling control and physics | |
| 5 | Feb 6 | DT/Physical Twin communication | Christophe Danjou (Polytechnique Montréal) |
| 6 | Feb 13 | Visualization | Pascal Archambault (Université de Montréal) |
| 7 | Feb 20 | DT intelligence | |
| 8 | Feb 27 | Systematic DT reporting framework | |
| 9 | Mar 2–6 | Reading week (no class) | |
| 10 | Mar 13 | Guest lecture | Istvan David (McMaster University) |
| 11 | Mar 20 | Formal verification | |
| 12 | Mar 27 | Realizing DTs | Prasad Talasila (Aarhus University) |
| 13 | Apr 3 | Easter break (no class) | |
| 14 | Apr 10 | Student presentations | |
| 15 | Apr 16 | Course review |
What Students Say
“The course is very engaging and hands-on.”
“The course project is one of the most valuable components of the course. It forces a deeper understanding of Digital Twin architecture by moving from conceptual discussion to system-level implementation, and provides a realistic view of how complex DT systems are built and analyzed.”
“The discussions and classes are very informational. It provides basis for the understanding the space of Digital Twins. Technologies can be learned quickly, but how to think about DTs and how they connect practically come from these discussions. It is terrific!”
Potential Students
Please contact me if you are interested in taking or auditing the course. All are welcome!
For students from other Quebec universities, there is an established inter-university enrollment procedure. See the BCI Québec application portal (select ‘Applications’ on the left) and the BCI student transfer guide for details.