Technology for Health, Resilience, Equity , and Decision-Making
Team: A&S: Kelly Merrill, Lauren Forbes, Briana Simms, Paris Wheeler, Diego Cuadros, DAAP: Ming Tang
Funding: Center for Clinical & Translational Science & Training. CCTST. Pilot Grant. $50,000. PI. Merrill, Forbes, Co-I. Tang, Cuadros, Simms, Wheeler. 2026. University of Cincinnati.
Physical layer (right column) and social layer (left column) of the Avondale Digital Twin (ADT). Users can access the ADT through mobile devices, PCs, and VR headsets (bottom right) to visualize and explore the digital representation of the Avondale neighborhood. The platform supports interaction with AI agents, represented through a chatbot, and other users, represented as avatars, within both social and gamified environments. Users can query the AI chatbot, which is trained on neighborhood-specific information and datasets curated by the research team, while also communicating and collaborating with other users in the shared virtual environment.
Project Aims: 
Aim 1: Co-design a set of digital data governance policies that reflect Black community preferences, concerns, and expectations around the use of their digital health data.
Aim 2: Assess the utility of digital twin technology (3D city modeling with VR) for community advocacy and population health-related objectives.
Aim 3: Co-design and develop a community-driven, population health intervention and participatory planning tool.
Ming Tang’s involvement in the human-centered digital twin can be traced back to his work at the MSU MIND Lab roughly two decades ago, and the THRED project builds directly on that foundation. There is also a clear conceptual link to HomeNetToo project then, where multiple interfaces—a standard web interface, a spatial interface, and an interpersonal interface—were developed to examine how different modes of interaction influence knowledge acquisition across varying cognitive styles. That early work established an important premise: the design of an interface fundamentally shapes how users interpret, understand, and engage with information.
THRED extends this line of inquiry beyond controlled experimental settings into a real-world, system-scale platform by integrating digital twins, and data-driven decision environments. Rather than comparing interfaces in isolation, it synthesizes them—bringing together spatial (3D environments), informational (data visualization and dashboards), and social (community and stakeholder engagement) interfaces into a unified ecosystem. In this sense, THRED represents a shift from experimental interaction design toward an applied, human-centered digital twin framework. It maintains continuity with earlier immersive technology research while significantly expanding its scope, enabling new forms of collective understanding, decision-making, and behavioral insight at urban and societal scales.
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