Smart DCU Digital Twin: Towards Autism-Friendly Universities

Digital Twins are one of the emerging technologies which facilitate the creation of a digital replica of physical assets and infrastructure. The majority of initial use-cases of digital twins for smart cities and smart universities has focused on creation of the 3D representation of the infrastructure. However, with the maturity of technology, digital twins are nowadays used to build use-cases for smart applications which involve multiple sources of information including geographical information, IoT sensors and use-case specific knowledge bases. Smart DCU Digital Twin is one of the initiative towards achieving a smart university status for Dublin City University (DCU). Across the globe and in Ireland many universities including DCU are working on providing additional support to students with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). The primary focus of these initiatives is on improving social interactions, and reducing academic and sensory barriers for the students. In this paper, we present our work on using digital twin technology to assist DCU in achieving its objective of becoming a fully inclusive and an Autism-Friendly university, with a particular focus on the reduction of sensory barriers for its students.