Stony Brook University’s Digital Twin Studio will give students a hands-on look at energy’s future

The university is developing a Digital Twin Studio designed to create high-fidelity virtual models of electrical distribution systems, allowing researchers, students and industry partners to test how the grid could respond to everything from equipment failures and extreme weather to changing energy demands and cyberattacks. But while the project could have major implications for the future of the power grid, one of its most significant impacts may be inside the classroom. The studio is being developed by the Stony Brook Center for Grid Innovation Development and Deployment at the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center.

The university is targeting December for the initial minimum viable platform, with a student-training component expected to launch through the CyberLearn workforce development program in spring 2027. For students such as Stony Brook senior Ansh Garg, the project offers something that can be difficult to find in a traditional college course: direct exposure to how emerging technology is being used to solve problems in an industry outside the technology sector. Garg, 22, who is studying computer science and applied mathematics, has been involved with the CyberLearn program and plans to become more directly involved with the Digital Twin Studio.

“As a computer science major, it’s kind of interesting,” Garg said. “When you’re in classes, you don’t get to really talk about how, when you build this kind of technology, how it really impacts different industries.” Instead of focusing solely on applications in the technology industry, Garg said the program has allowed him to see how cybersecurity, machine learning and other emerging technologies are being applied to utilities and the energy sector. That exposure has also put students in conversations with professionals working in the field, including people from utilities and consulting companies.

Garg said those conversations have provided a perspective that he would not necessarily have received in the classroom. “You get to really hear about not only the problems that consumers are facing, but also the struggles that actual practitioners and professionals in the industry are kind of dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” he said. That connection between education and industry is at the heart of the Digital Twin Studio.

Abdelrahim Brown, a senior director at Stony Brook and director of the university’s grid-related centers, said the project grew in part from conversations with utilities about how digital twin technology could help address real-world challenges. The university surveyed major utilities and energy agencies to identify potential uses for the technology. Among the common areas identified were vegetation management, asset management and cybersecurity.

The first phase of Stony Brook’s studio will focus on vegetation risk analytics, outage and contingency forecasting, and asset-health monitoring. A utility, for example, could use the system to examine whether vegetation near electrical infrastructure poses a risk before sending a crew and truck into the field. Researchers could simulate equipment failures or changes in electricity demand.

Sensors could provide information about equipment performance that could then be analyzed for signs of abnormal behavior or potential maintenance needs. The idea is to test those scenarios virtually before taking action in the physical world. For students, that creates an opportunity to work with the same kinds of problems facing the industry.

The university is developing a free, noncredit course as part of CyberLearn that will provide students with hands-on experience building digital twins from an energy perspective. Students will work in a laboratory in the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, where computers, networking equipment and other hardware are being installed. Brown said students will be able to model everything from an individual wind turbine to more complex scenarios involving offshore wind farms, battery storage, other generation sources and electricity demand.

The models will be based on physics and real-world data rather than simply creating theoretical scenarios. That distinction is important, Brown said, because it gives students an opportunity to develop ideas in a virtual environment while maintaining a connection to what could actually work in the real world. The studio will use physics-based simulation, artificial intelligence and data from sources including geographic information systems, weather systems, advanced meters and distributed energy resources.

The university also plans to incorporate real data from its own facilities and eventually connect physical equipment to the virtual environment to test whether its performance matches what the model predicts. Artificial intelligence will play a role in the system, particularly when it comes to running large numbers of potential “what-if” scenarios. But both Brown and Garg stressed that AI will not be treated as an authority.

Garg said students will be taught to keep a “human in the loop,” with decisions and recommendations checked by people rather than blindly accepting AI-generated results. Brown said the studio will also periodically compare its models with actual physical data, creating a safeguard against a simulation drifting too far from reality. The approach reflects a broader lesson the university hopes students take with them into the workforce: Emerging technology is powerful, but understanding how and when to use it is just as important.

For Garg, that experience has already changed the way he views the energy industry. Before becoming involved with the program, he said, utilities were not an area he had considered particularly interesting. Now, he said, learning about the challenges facing the industry has broadened his perspective.

“Getting that industry insight and talking to people and seeing how they’re approaching this kind of impossible problem has been an awesome experience, super unique and super insightful,” Garg said. The experience could also give students an advantage when they graduate. Brown said the goal is not simply to prepare students for jobs at established utilities.

The studio could also give students the tools to develop their own ideas and potentially create new companies. Because students will be able to test concepts using real data and physics-based models, they could explore whether an idea is viable before moving toward the costly process of building and manufacturing physical equipment. Garg sees another benefit: being among the first students to gain experience with a technology that is still emerging in the energy industry.

“Once it gets established, when students come and get involved, it can be a great way for students to get that experience with digital twins right from the get-go versus having them wait until later on in their career,” Garg said. The studio is also intended to eventually serve a broader audience. Stony Brook plans to expand the platform to help the public better understand how electricity moves from generation through transmission and distribution and ultimately into homes.

The university also hopes to provide a controlled environment where energy companies and startups can test and demonstrate technologies without putting an operating utility system at risk. Approximately $550,000 has been secured for the current buildout, with another $300,000 anticipated for the next stage. The project includes high-performance computing equipment, laboratory computers, sensors, data-acquisition equipment, networking infrastructure and a drone equipped with lidar (light detection and ranging), thermal imaging and visual imaging.

But Brown said the most interesting results may come from the people who eventually use the studio. He expects students to approach the technology with ideas that the team has not yet considered. For Garg, being involved at the beginning of the project means more than adding another line to his résumé.

It means helping establish an opportunity that future Stony Brook students can use as the technology develops. “I think that just that legacy aspect is awesome,” Garg said. And that may ultimately be one of the Digital Twin Studio’s biggest contributions, creating a place where students can move from learning about emerging technology to actually using it, testing it and imagining what comes next.