Giancarlo Fortino

Department of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics, and Systems Engineering, University of Calabria, Rende (CS), Italy

June 15, 2026

Generative Digital Twins: Principles, Architecture, Methodology, and Applications

Abstract: Digital Twins (DTs) are software replicas that not only mirrors physical entities but can also proactively predict, control, optimize and simulate their behavior. Born in the manufacturing sector, this concept after an initial hype stayed untouched for decades. The rise of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled DT, respectively, to exchange real-world data and to fully exploit it for fulfilling its own goals. Very recently, Gener-ative AI (Gen-AI) methods started being sporadically applied to DT in different contexts and with different targets. In this talk, starting from our experiences on design,  implementation and evaluation of DTs and, more recently, of Opportunistic DTs, we first provide a definition for the Generative DT (GDT) which embraces main distinctive aspects and potential of current and future Gen-Al-aided DTs. In particular, we disclose the role of Gen-AI in conciliating the model- and the data-driven approach for the development of DTs. Then, we analyze the added value of main Gen-AI architectures and development methodologies for maximizing the effectiveness and the performance of DTs operating in the IoT domain and deployed in the device-edge-cloud continuum. Finally, we illustrate the potential of GDT in emblematic use cases in the Smart City, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Water Systems, Smart Robotics, Smart Education and, more in general, in Smart IoT-driven domains.

Short Bio: Giancarlo Fortino (IEEE Fellow 2022) is Full Professor of Computer Engineering at the Dept of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics, and Systems of the University of Calabria (Unical), Italy. He received a PhD in Computer Engineering from Unical in 2000. He is also distinguished professor at Wuhan University of Technology (China), high-end expert of many chinese universities, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology, South China University of Technology, Shanghai Maritime University, etc., senior research fellow at the Italian ICAR-CNR Institute, CAS PIFI Group international fellow at SIAT (Shenzhen), and Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Sensors Council, SMC society, and IoT TC. He was also visiting researcher at ICSI, Berkeley (USA), in 1997 and 1999 and visiting professor at Queensland University of technology in 2009. At Unical, he is the chair of the PhD School in ICT, the director of the Postgraduate Master course in AI-driven Radiomics, and the director of the SPEME lab, the Radioamica lab, as well as co-chair of Joint labs on IoT established between Unical and WUT, SMU and HZAU Chinese universities, respectively, and a Joint lab on AI-driven Robotics established with indian istitutions. Fortino is currently the scientific responsible of the Unical group of the Italian CINI National Laboratory of Digital Health and of the Unical group of the CINI Cyber Humanities WG. He is Highly Cited Researcher 2020-2025 in Computer Science by Clarivate (the only Italian professor currently ranked). He had 25+ highly cited papers in WoS, and h-index=90 with about 35K citations in Google Scholar. His research interests include wearable computing systems, e-Health, Internet of Things, and agent-based computing. He is author of 750+ papers in int’l journals, conferences and books. He is (founding) series editor of IEEE Press Book Series on Human-Machine Systems and EiC of Springer Internet of Things series and AE of premier int'l journals such as IEEE TASE (senior editor), IEEE TAFFC-CS, IEEE THMS, IEEE T-AI, IEEE SJ, IEEE JBHI, IEEE OJEMB, IEEE OJCS, Information Fusion, BDCC, etc. He chaired many int’l workshops and conferences (130+), was involved in a huge number of int’l conferences/workshops (700+) as IPC member, is/was guest-editor of many special issues (80+). He is cofounder and CEO of SenSysCal S.r.l., a Unical spinoff focused on innovative IoT systems, and recently cofounder and vice-CEO of the spin-off Bigtech S.r.l, focused on big data, AI and IoT technologies. Fortino is the VP of Cybernetics (term 2026-2027) of the IEEE SMCS, member of the IEEE SMCS ExCom, and former chair of the IEEE SMCS Italian Chapter.

Giuseppe D'Aniello

Department of Information and Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, University of Salerno, Fisciano (SA), Italy

June 16, 2026

Short Bio: Giuseppe D’Aniello (SMIEE 2024) is an Associate Professor of Information Processing Systems at the Department of Information and Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics (DIEM) of the University of Salerno. He received a PhD in Information Engineering in 2018 from the Univrersity of Salerno. He got the scientific habilitation to Full Professor in the academic field of Information Processing Systems. His research activity focuses on the definition of cognitive models and computational and artificial intelligence approaches for Situation Awareness, applied to Human-Machine Systems and Cyber-Physical-Social Systems. In 2025, he is included among the World’s Top 2% Scientists according to the Stanford/Elsevier ranking in the field of Artificial Intelligence. He is a member of the Knowledge Management and Information Systems Lab (KnowMIS) at DIEM, where he coordinates the research group on Situation Awareness. He is a co-founder of the academic spin-off Urban MIS, dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence and situation awareness solutions for the intelligent and sustainable management of urban environments, with applications in smart cities and cultural heritage protection. He has participated in several research and development projects. In particular, from 2014 to 2018, he served as Project Manager at the Research Consortium on Agent Systems (CORISA), where he coordinated research projects within the Mar.Te. District. He is the scientific coordinator of the ConSALE project, which focuses on a new framework for designing microlearning-based training courses, and he is member of the technical-scientific committee of the Trinity R&D Project. He is member of the Board of Directors of the Interdipartimental Center SIMAS of the University of Salerno. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Cognitive Computation (Springer). He is an IEEE Senior Member, Chair of the Distinguished Lecturers Committee of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, and Vice-Chair of the Italian Chapter of IEEE SMC. He has held several prominent organizational roles in international conferences in the fields of Situation Awareness, Human-Machine Systems, and Artificial Intelligence, including General Chair of IEEE CogSIMA 2022, TPC Chair of IEEE HMS 2024, and IEEE SMC 2025.