Transcript 0:01 With the worker shortage, we need to turn to technology faster than ever before, and that's what we're talking about. 0:08 With the threats on our grids, on our pipelines, on our major critical infrastructure, we need to build infrastructure that is both secure and resilient. 0:19 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:38 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. As always, I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:45 Welcome to 2022, and this will be the year of digital transformation and rebuilding our cities and infrastructure, all while keeping sustainability in mind. 0:58 We are going to need to turn to technologies like artificial intelligence, the digital twin, and the Internet of Things in order to build the city of tomorrow, and we are going to need to do it, all of this, in order to keep all of those bad guys at bay. 1:19 We have had one too many cyber attacks on our electric grid and our pipelines. How many times have you heard that? Our infrastructure is at risk, and we don't... W- we haven't done enough about it, right? 1:34 You've heard how many times about that? But the good news is 2022 is gonna be different. 1:39 So today, let's really define one area specifically, the digital twin, and explore how it will help rebuild our cities and our infrastructure. But let me tell you about this. 1:52 Later on in the show, I will be interviewing Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems. Now, here is an individual who can tell us all about infrastructure. 2:02 We're gonna talk about infrastructure investment and the Jobs Act, and how it is an opportunity for environmental and climate improvement with the new focus on investment in the infrastructure. 2:14 Greg is someone who can share with a lot of examples of the digital twin projects and the opportunities that exist, so I hope you'll stick around, because it's gonna be a great conversation. 2:26 I've talked to Greg many times, and I can tell you, I'm really excited about what we're gonna talk about. All right. So first, let me share with you my thoughts on how we can rebuild with the digital twin. 2:40 Many of you know the long-awaited infrastructure bill passed at the end of last year. Combined with the president's build back framework, it will add on average 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years. 2:57 We're talking about the next decade. So here's the challenge. We have already a worker shortage in construction, which is something we've been trying to address for many years now. 3:09 Add to the fact that businesses across the globe are still grappling with all the disruption left in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they're still... 3:22 Many of us are still reeling from the hurdles to address it going on in the beginning of this new year. Yes, this legislation will lead to more resilient, safe, and sustainable infrastructure, but only if we do it right. 3:38 We need to leverage data to work smarter, not harder. We need to future-proof our cities. We need to leverage, and I'm gonna tell you, the digital twin. So let me explain. 3:52 For those of you who might not be as familiar with the digital twin, it is a digital and dynamic representation of a physical asset in context to the real world around it. 4:06 This is the definition both by Bentley Systems and the Digital Twin Consortium in how they use it. The Digital Twin Consortium is a global ecosystem comprising of, let's say, industry, uh, government, and even academia. 4:22 It was founded to accelerate the adoption, the development, uh, interoperability, and security of digital twins and enabling technologies. 4:34 The last point there will be key, and this is why I wanna talk about it, as we aim to keep the bad gaze- bad guys out and to keep things safe. 4:43 The implementation of digital twin or any technology really increases the need for security, uh, let's say compliance, and data protection. 4:54 Businesses planning needs to include data security, let's say data integrity, privacy, and, and anything else you can think of, and we've talked about this so many times before, because good security practices are key. 5:10 I mean, the hack that took down one of the largest fuel pipelines in the country was allegedly the result of a single compromised password. I mean, come on. 5:21 We've heard that same story time and time again, and it, i- if it's that easy to, to do it, come on. I, I... An attack, one password? I mean, okay, I get it. 5:33 I'm digressing, and that's really not where I wanna go with today's conversation, but we need to be aware of this. 5:39 I mean, how many times do we have to talk about the bad guys get in because somebody didn't change their password? 5:45 The big takeaway here is digital twins are dynamic, and this is what makes it different from something like, let's say, building information modeling, or BIM, as you've heard me talk about on this show so many times. 6:00 A digital twin is a living and changing constantly, which makes it really cool. It is always synced to the physical asset.And it is the most up-to-date data set, which makes it really cool when you think about it. 6:16 And it puts the right information into the right hands, as I like to say, at the right time. Now, think about the importance of that. 6:25 And the use of digital twins in industries like construction and manufacturing and many others will continue to be on the rise, and I think in this next year, so very important. 6:38 And many others, but I'm just thinking in 2022 we're gonna see it be very pivotal year for the digital twin. The global digital market will grow at a whopping 58%, some analysts say, by just 2026. 6:53 But I think 2022 and 2023 are gonna be very pivotal. 6:57 What's more, roughly 40% of the CEOs at engineering firms expect that within the next three years their clients are going to require them to deliver a digital twin and simulation results together with physical assets. 7:17 Now, as I talk to professors, they talk about the power of the digital twin. 7:21 The opportunities for digital twins are, are endless, as I like to say, and that is what's really pretty awesome when you think about the innovations that are going to be able to result out of digital twins. 7:36 Okay, get ready. I mean, we f- hear about digital twin. Everybody is now talking about how the digital twins are being viewed in the metaverse, supporting collaboration. I mean, okay, h- how far... Think about this. 7:49 How far have we come? It all started with M2M, machine to machine. 7:55 Then it went into IoT, the Internet of Things, and now we're talking about the digital twin, we're talking about AR and VR, and we'll all be enjoying all of the benefits of the digital twins perhaps even in the metaverse collaborating and so much more. 8:12 But how quickly did this all advance? And could we say some of it advanced because we were forced to? Because in the last, you know, 18 to 24 months, COVID expedited all of this and we saw the growth. 8:26 Whatever label you wanna put on it, I see digital twins working together providing infrastructure and construction and management and all in one place. That's what's so cool about this. 8:39 That's what you gotta think about it. I... It can enable, and I can see it enabling contractors and engineers to plan and manage people and materials and equipment more easily and affordably. 8:52 Think about in manufacturing. A digital twin can be used to create twins of components and assemblies and people or an entire manufacturing plant. I couldn't even imagine that five years ago. 9:07 It can help extend capabilities, increase flexibility, and mitigate the risk of business failure. That was just unimaginable just a few years ago. 9:19 We are seeing this time and time again in manufacturing and construction and, and logistics and so many other industries. The supply chain could truly use it, right? 9:32 When we think about all the things that are happening there. And, and now it's a word nobody even wants to hear anymore. It's, it's just a word we wanna get out of our dictionary. 9:40 But we need to go into this with our eyes wide open. So here's my opinion for today. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will lead to more resilient, safe, and sustainable infrastructure. 9:56 Companies need to move forward with building infrastructure if we want to avoid major issues against... in, in struggling with the bad guys. This isn't optional anymore, folks. It's not. It is necessary. 10:12 But we need to do this right. We've gotta be smart about it. With the worker shortage, we need to turn to technology faster than ever before, and that's what we're talking about. 10:23 With the threats on our grids, on our pipelines, on our major critical infrastructure, we need to build infrastructure that is both secure and resilient. 10:34 This is true here in the States, but it's also true on a global initiative that we talk that's underway. 10:42 I love what Adam Klatzkin, vice president of iTwin Platform at Bentley Systems, said on this very show this past December when we were talking. 10:51 There is a global drive to not only build better infrastructure, what he told me, but to build infrastructure better. Now, think about that. We need to build better. It's that simple. 11:04 I like that he even goes further to say there's a drive to operate infrastructure better as well. That's awesome. Just think about those words. It's a powerful statement. So here's my tip. Look to the future. 11:21 This is where it gets really important. When building this infrastructure and leveraging technology, we need to consider what cities will look like, not just in five years from now or 10 years. 11:34 We've gotta look 50 or 100 years from now, just like when we first built our first roads. We've have to think about what our cities are gonna be like. We've gotta use our imaginations and be serious about it. 11:47 We need to future-proof this. We need to think like the bad guys in order to protect our cities. We need all of this to be safer and smarter. The good news is that technology can help us do just that. 12:02 Digital twin can help us plan and manage projects better than ever before. It can help us visualize, analyze, and predict what might happen with our infrastructure assets. 12:17 That's powerful stuff.It can give us insights and we have never, ever had that before. 12:25 We have a big opportunity here to rebuild, reimagine our cities and our infrastructure, but we got to do it together. Let's take it and make it the best we possibly can. That's what's really important. 12:42 We can do things together. We can work together, we can reimagine together, and we can create some really powerful things. But we've got to do this. 12:54 We've got to think about what the cities are, and we've got to apply the digital twin to do it. We're all talking about the metaverse. Oh my goodness, the metaverse. It's all about collaboration. 13:04 We're using AR and VR, but the digital twin right now is a powerful tool, just like the IoT, where we're leveraging it in manufacturing. Now we're using digital twins to really reimagine our cities. 13:16 It's one step at a time. It's very quick. We're making these moves, but that's how we're getting there. All right, but guess what? We're out of time, but you know what I want you to do? 13:25 I want you to check out our website. Get up and check out connectedworld.com, and you're going to see what we're doing with Connected World and Construct Tech to give you all this great in- information that we're doing. 13:34 But while we're doing that, I want you to tweet at me. I want you to give me the information and the questions you want us to ask. We're only better when you share information. That's what we're talking about. 13:44 Just like the digital twin, we've got to collaborate. We need to talk about all these things so we can give you the best information. So tweet at me at connectedwmag. We've got a lot of new things going on. 13:55 We're putting up our living lab because we want to help you apply all these really cool things in our own lives so we can be more sustainable. 14:03 So check out that because now we're going to show you our camera on our living lab that's going up so we can show you how to apply things as well. 14:10 So I'd love to get the comments that you see as we progress, as we build this living lab house so you could see what we're doing there. Together, we're going to do things together and show you how things are happening. 14:21 So we're going to take a quick commercial break as Greg Bentley is going to come here and I can tell you, he's going to tell us all about the digital twin. There's someone who knows all about it. 14:30 All right, so we're going to take a quick commercial break and while we're there, go get your quick cup of coffee. 14:35 As always, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, and remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. All right, we'll be right back.
