Spatial Computing for Digital Twinning

Our world faces environmental, social, and economic challenges, as a result of climate change and scarcity of space and resources. The coming generation of actors involved in spatial development, such as architects, planners, geo-information specialists, policy and decision-makers, but also citizens, will be expected to handle those challenges and to improve the liveability & quality of existing and new urban areas, landscapes, and buildings. Therefore spatial development requires the identification and solving of multi-disciplinary design and decision-making problems in a collaborative and participatory setting. In these processes, the fundamental questions are: How can we monitor, model, analyse, and evaluate the functioning of cities, neighbourhoods, and buildings? How can we test if our interventions or designs will yield better results? How can we improve the sustainability and liveability of regions, cities, neighborhoods, and buildings in quantifiable ways, considering their inter-relations? To effectively answer such complex multi-disciplinary questions computational approaches are used to automate the analysis and evaluation procedures for optimizing design choices, also in participatory settings.

The minor Spatial Computing offers a set of courses providing the fundamentals of computing in spatial (2D, 3D & 4D, geometrical, topological, and/or graph theoretical) monitoring, design, and spatial decision-making. The minor consists of 2 components: Geospatial Computing (Digital Twinning) & Architectural Computing (Generative Design), each of which covers essential topics of applied mathematics, geo-information and computer science for multi-dimensional algorithmic modelling, analysis, simulation and evaluation at building, neighborhood and urban scale.

The concepts, methods, and techniques learnt in the first quarter on spatial development at neighborhood scale--using geospatial data to build digital twins that support informed decision-making--will be directly applied in the second quarter for the simulation-driven architectural design of buildings.

Spatial Computing for Digital Twinning is focused on identifying and solving complex spatial decision problems in spatial decision-making at (sub)urban scales. It involves acquiring and effectively handling of 3D data, addressing the issue of open urban geo-data governance (data sharing by involved actors), developing analytic procedures and simulation models using geo-data for understanding the complexity of regions, cities and neighborhoods, and directing interventions for yielding (objectively evaluated) effective results. By using geospatial simulation models and spatial optimization techniques, this half of the minor focuses on digital twinning for supporting decision-making at (sub)urban scales. The thematic areas of attention will be spatial optimization for spatial location-allocation problems and network analysis, as well as simulation modelling for understanding the effect of designs and interventions on various activities and phenomena such as mobility, energy use/production, spatial diversity, segregation, spatial justice, and urban sprawl and their relation to Sustainable Development Goals.

Registration for this thematic minor is on a first-come, first-served basis and available places. (No lottery draw).

The complete minor is intended for students of Architecture and Built Environment (ABE), Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS), Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG), Aerospace Engineering (AE), Technology, Policy & Management (TPM), and Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). It is, however, also open for other students, including students outside TU Delft.

This minor is suitable for those interested in rational and collaborative approaches to decision-making for sustainable development in surveying, design, and planning. It has a mathematics & programming-oriented approach, however, prior knowledge is not considered a prerequisite.

Student at Leiden University, TU Delft or Erasmus University Rotterdam?
Check the eligibility matrix to see if your bachelor’s degree programme offers access to this and other minors at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor

Student at another educational institution?
External students cannot register via EduXchange. Interested in this minor, read the whole registration procedure at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor

For information about the courses, visit the TU Delftstudy guide.
For additional information on this minor, visit the TU Delftminor page.

Lectures, hands-on programming (open-source), workshops, group study, and seminars

Check the detailed overview of courses, learning activities and study load at https://www.studyguide.tudelft.nl/