A realtime flythrough demo for Digital Twin of City Cincinnati
Digital Futures Building at the University of Cincinnati
Destroy Alien buildings near the UC campus. Project developed by students Cooper Pflaum and Nishanth Chidambaram.
Ming Tang, Principal Investigator
Amount: $32,416
Funding: P&G Digital Accelerator.
Gotal: Metaverse technologies for global engagement. Human-Computer Interaction, Digital Human. Immersive visualization.
In Phase 1 of the “Leveraging Metaverse Platforms for Enhanced Global Professional Networking” project, conducted in partnership with P&G, the XR-Lab proposes a pilot study aimed at identifying and analyzing the top five metaverse platforms best suited for professional networking and conferencing. The metaverse has opened unprecedented opportunities for communication, collaboration, and social engagement, offering innovative solutions for professional networking and conferencing. In Phase 1, “Surveying the Current Metaverse Landscape,” the UC team examined the top five metaverse platforms to evaluate their potential for replicating global in-person professional networking experiences and supporting multi-user online conferences.
This phase provided a systematic assessment of the leading platforms suitable for professional networking and conferencing. The team analyzed how these platforms leverage emerging technologies to create immersive experiences, such as hosting online conferences and facilitating discussions with global experts. The Phase 1 final report delivered a comprehensive evaluation of the strengths and limitations of each platform, along with recommendations for platform selection based on specific criteria such as audience size, interactivity, and technical requirements.
Additionally, the UC team demonstrated how platforms such as Mesh and Hyperspace can be customized for specific events, including tailored branding and interactive features designed to enhance professional networking and conferencing. These demonstrations provide valuable insights for P&G, highlighting how metaverse technologies can be strategically developed and adopted to expand global engagement and enable innovative event experiences.
Customized Metaverse Demo developed by the UC Team.
Please reach out to the P&G Team for the final report.
Related Links:
Fluid Simulation in Virtual Reality. Unreal Engine. Collision test with hand.
IIOT for legacy and intelligent factory machines with XR and LLM feedback with a Digital Twin demonstration of real-time IOT for architecture/building applications using Omniverse. 
$40,000. UC Industry 4.0/5.0 Institute Consortium Research Project: 01.2024-01.2025
The project centers on the development of a Digital Twin (DT) and a multi-agent Large Language Model (LLM) framework designed to access and interpret real-time and historical data through an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform. Real-time data is sourced from legacy machines and smart machines, integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) with environmental sensors. The multi-agent LLM framework comprises specialized agents and supports diverse user interfaces, including screen-based systems, Virtual Reality (VR) environments, and mobile devices, enabling versatile interaction, data visualization, and analysis.
The research evaluates leading DT platforms—Autodesk Tandem, NVIDIA Omniverse, and Unreal Engine—focusing on their capabilities to integrate IoT and BIM data while supporting legacy machine systems. Autodesk Tandem excelled in seamlessly combining BIM metadata with real-time IoT streams for building operations and system scalability. NVIDIA Omniverse demonstrated unmatched rendering fidelity and collaborative features through its Universal Scene Description (USD) framework. Unreal Engine, notable for its immersive visualization, proved superior for LLM integration, leveraging 3D avatars and conversational AI to enhance user interaction.
Preface
In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made significant inroads into the creative industries, notably in fields such as architecture design. The advent of AI-driven image creation tools and advanced language models has opened new frontiers in ideation, enabling a unique synergy between human creativity and generative AI imaging. This independent study aims to delve deep into the potential impacts of AI on the discipline of architecture and its integration into the design process. Three architecture students from the University of Cincinnati, Alex, Jackman, and Nathan, have embarked on a comprehensive investigation, utilizing cutting-edge AI tools to enhance their design capabilities and challenge and redefine traditional methodologies. Throughout their journey, three students have explored various dimensions of AI applications in architecture – from conceptualization and visualization to more complex aspects like representation and style. We invite you to explore the fruits of their experiments, which demonstrate their skillful application of AI in architecture and offer a glimpse into the future of architectural design, where human ingenuity and AI collaborate to create extraordinary works.
Ming Tang
