In her talk, the Director of the Institute prof. Sylvia Ilieva focused on current achievements and challenges in the GATE Future cities application domain.

“Sustainable design and transformation of cities require the application of new digital tools, based on mathematical modelling, simulation, and optimization”, pointed out prof. Ilieva.

City digital twins provide new ways of undertaking these tasks through a more integrated inclusive and sophisticated approach. The implementation of Digital Twin technology requires the meaningful integration of a huge volume of high-value data, including public, business and citizen data on key activities such as urban infrastructure and air cleanliness, mobility, construction, energy efficiency, etc.

“City Digital twins contribute to building more liveable, inclusive, safe, and sustainable cities”, concluded prof. Ilieva.

Transform4Europe is a consortium that comprises seven universities from different regions in Europe. Its first annual PhD conference “Societal Transformations and Sustainable Development with Respect to Environment in the Post Covid-19 Digital Era“ was hosted by Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. The conference was thematically related to the three Transform4Europe focus areas: Societal transformation, community building and inclusion; Digital transformation and smart regions; Environmental Transformation and sustainability.