Cityzenith: Multifaceted Applications of Digital Twins

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Michael Jansen, Chairman and CEO

Digital twins—precise, virtual copies of a product, process, or service—are revolutionizing the manufacturing and construction space. Today, many major companies are already using digital twins to spot problems and make more productive decisions. Despite this popularity, the maximum potential of digital twins has yet to be realized. A major reason behind this is the fact that the industry lacks standardization. It can be difficult to aggregate data from thousands of sensors, BIM models, GIS systems, BMS and equipment control systems, public databases, etc. to create a perfect digital twin. These data are often spread across many stakeholders and be held in multiple formats because of varying 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, and 5D file formats. The result? Digital twins often fail to resonate with what is going on in the real world and lead to poor decision making. At this juncture, the company that sets out to solve these problems is Cityzenith.

Founded in 2009, Cityzenith was conceptualized to procure a solution that empowers manufacturing industry professionals to simplify their workflows, while achieving better results. Michael Jansen—the chairman and CEO of the company and a passionate architect and smart city industry leader—wanted to offer a digital twin solution that can aggregate critical software tools across the entire lifecycle of the building process, from design through operations, within a single, consolidated user interface. Staying true to the goal, his company developed the first generation of Smart World Pro: an end-to-end, holistic platform that acts as a “single pane of glass,” letting the users see all their data in a digital twin. It offers a complete ‘from design to demolition’ digital twin representation of any specified project that showcases an expanded view of their entire portfolio down to a detailed view of a single sensor in a room.

In addition to being one-of-a-kind, lexible platform, it was developed by some of the world’s greatest engineering minds. The very first version of Smart World Pro was collaboratively built with the help of the creator of Google Earth and several other prominent Silicon Valley technologists. Today’s newly released SmartWorldPro2 represents a giant leap forward for the company, featuring a highly customizable user interface, together with several API integration capabilities—catering to every client’s needs—includes natural language search, annotations, modelling tools, and navigation tools. Leveraging Smart World Pro’s capabilities, architects, engineers, plant operators, facilities managers, property managers, et. al. manage significant amounts of data across large projects from a single interactive dashboard, where all the relevant information is aggregated in real-time. This Data can be used to monitor the lifecycle of various components, improve inventory management, or even regulate temperatures inside a building or factory. “Our user-friendly and intuitive digital twins can also be leveraged to optimize and coordinate crisis management initiatives, which might be extremely useful during this current pandemic scenario,” expresses Jansen, “and We recently published a white paper in cooperation with a panel of leading digital twin experts from around the world detailing how digital twins can help mitigate the impact of Covid-19.”

Our user-friendly and intuitive digital twins can also be leveraged to optimize and coordinate crisis management initiatives, which might be extremely useful during this current pandemic scenario

Furthermore, Cityzenith’s forthcoming app store of AI, ML, and other analytics tools—Mapalyze— aggregates real-time traffic data and building information, along with zoning, energy consumption, land use data, and more from thousands of cities across the globe. Users can explore their data using voice-enabled, simple language search, intuitive navigation tools, and a pallet of support features. Besides, using plugins from Mapalyze, businesses can run detailed analyses of their data—including line-of-sight, shadow, and microclimate. These plugins also allow users to connect to other BIM solutions and import different types of BIM files directly into Smart World Pro. And, adding to such existing capabilities, Cityzenith is now getting ready to introduce a new solution dubbed as TwinUp. It will be a presentation platform similar to Instagram or Adobe’s Behance, an advanced presentation platform for architects where they upload their 3D project models and presentation slides and present them to clients anywhere around the world.

To further elaborate on Cityzenith’s prowess, Jansen tells the story of a major property management firm using six different building management systems for control, facility, vendor, and tenant management. “The customer wanted a single digital twin integration of all these applications that would give them a master dashboard to track KRAs and KPIs in parallel,” he explains. The client also wanted to establish a correlation between different functions using the digital twin and increase efficiencies while lowering the overall operating costs. Cityzenith’s solution met and exceeded the client’s expectations. Especially in terms of establishing a correlation between other processes, Cityzenith helped the client connecting their control system with the vendor management system. Such integration helped the client in sending automated notifications to vendors in case of any untoward incident, such as a leak from a valve. “It’s a small but a very significant illustration of what digital twins can really do for any area of business,” underscores Jansen.

With such comprehensive software competencies, the future for Cityzenith is bustling but bright. The company’s intentions toward keeping their solution open source have earned itself the trust and favor of many AEC, energy, property, infrastructure, and manufacturing professionals. And, by allowing citizens to own ‘a piece of Cityzenith,’ the company is also gearing up for its upcoming semipublic Regulation A+ on the popular StartEngine crowd funding platform in June. Cityzenith has also kicked off Another project with Orlando Sports + Entertainment District recently to create A single data experience for multiple use cases in downtown Orlando around the sports arenas. It is one of the largest digital twins of a smart district in the U.S. In addition to that, currently, the company is working on the second generation of Smart World Pro. The Upcoming version of the platform would help in structural planning and equipment designing of varying manufacturing facilities. With such ambitious plans, Cityzenith is poised to pave the way for digital twin innovation in a multitude of industries.

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Company
Cityzenith

Headquarters
Chicago, IL

Management
Michael Jansen, Chairman and CEO

Description
The one-of-a-kind, non-proprietary, open-source platform, Smart World Pro is collaboratively built with the help of the creator of Google Earth and several other prominent Silicon Valley technologists. Its highly customizable user interface, together with several API integration capabilities—catering to every client’s needs—include natural language search, annotations, modelling tools, and navigation tools, among others. Leveraging Smart World Pro’s capabilities, architects can manage significant amounts of data across large projects on a single interactive dashboard, where all the relevant information is aggregated in real-time. This data can be used to monitor the lifecycle of various components, improve inventory management, or even regulate temperatures inside a building or factory