The ubiquity of the Internet of Things is changing how we sense and interact with our environment and has led to the emergence of the Digital Twin – a virtual model of a real-life operational entity. Driven by information, these models allow us to monitor operations to head off issues before they arise, or optimise operations based on ever-changing human-environment interaction. William's research will explore the hidden value of “data as a material” to improve efficiency and demand flexibility.

His research aims to develop a new method to quantify the social, economic and environmental benefits of capturing, analysing and storing information generated in a digital twin based on analysis of demand management and post-occupancy evaluation. Analysis will be conducted on two new campus buildings at UCL East (opening 2022 and 2023) which have the capacity to generate about 30 million data points per day.