Towards a Novel Digital Twin Framework Proposal Within the Engineering Design Process for Future Engineers: An IoT...

Area of Science:

• Engineering Education
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Digital Twin (DT) Technology

Background:

• The rapid advancement of IoT technologies presents unique opportunities and challenges for engineering education.
• Existing engineering curricula often lack integrated approaches for teaching complex, interconnected smart systems.
• There is a need for pedagogical frameworks that bridge theoretical knowledge with practical application in Industry 4.0 contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel, comprehensive framework extending the Engineering Design Process (EDP) with a modular Digital Twin (DT) structure for smart building IoT applications in education.
• To enable real-time system feedback, simulation-based design iteration, and hands-on experimentation within a pedagogical flow.
• To prepare future engineers for interdisciplinary challenges in smart systems and digital transformation.

Main Methods:

• Development of a seven-phase framework integrating DT into the EDP for IoT education.
• Implementation of a practical use case involving an IoT-enabled meteorological station for real-time environmental monitoring and energy consumption analysis in a smart building.
• Introduction of a hybrid pedagogical approach combining traditional hands-on methods with DT activities.

Main Results:

• The proposed framework successfully guides learners from fundamental concepts to advanced applications like data visualization and system optimization.
• The meteorological station use case demonstrated the framework's effectiveness in real-time monitoring and analysis.
• The hybrid pedagogical approach fostered experimental learning, iterative design, and complex systems thinking.

Conclusions:

• The integrated EDP-DT framework provides a robust methodology for teaching smart building IoT concepts.
• This approach effectively bridges the gap between theoretical engineering knowledge and practical application.
• The study contributes to better preparing engineers for the interdisciplinary demands of Industry 4.0.