Towards a Novel Digital Twin Framework Proposal Within the Engineering Design Process for Future Engineers: An IoT Smart Building Use Case.

The continuous evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies presents significant opportunities and challenges within the domain of engineering education. This paper introduces a novel and comprehensive framework that extends the established Engineering Design Process (EDP) by incorporating a modular Digital Twin (DT) structure specifically tailored to smart building IoT applications in education. Unlike previous approaches, our framework enables real-time system feedback, simulation-based design iteration, and hands-on experimentation-all integrated within a pedagogical flow aligned with engineering curricula. It comprises seven distinct phases, providing a complete methodology that guides learners from fundamental concepts to advanced applications, including data visualization, real-time simulation, and system optimization. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework, we design and experiment with a practical use case related to a meteorological station and data, which incorporate IoT-enabled sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers for real-time monitoring of environmental parameters and energy consumption within a smart building campus facility. Additionally, to support EDP extension, a hybrid pedagogical approach is introduced, which combines traditional engineering hands-on education methodologies with DT activities, to further foster experimental learning, iterative system design, and complex systems thinking development. To this end, our approach aims to bridge the gap between theoretical science and engineering knowledge, along with practical application use cases, contributing to a better preparation of future engineers capable of addressing interdisciplinary challenges associated with smart systems and digital transformation within the Industry 4.0 era.