Unveiling Innovations Across Multidisciplinary Horizons

In this edition of the International Journal of Technology (IJTech), we embark on a journey through the diverse landscape of multidisciplinary research, where innovation knows no bounds. Our contributors explore a spectrum of fields, offering insights that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. The tapestry of knowledge woven within these pages exemplifies the spirit of collaboration and the limitless possibilities that emerge when different engineering disciplines converge. Each article in this edition represents a beacon of innovation, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary research. From advancements in fluid dynamics to urban finance, biomedical engineering and sustainable architecture, our authors illuminate the vast landscape of possibilities when ideas and expertise from various engineering domains converge.

The Digital Twin Paradigm: A Call for Collaborative Innovation

A key highlight of this edition is the exploration of the Digital Twin paradigm, a technological symphony that resonates across industries. The Digital Twin concept, as highlighted in various articles, presents a virtual replica of physical systems. It enables real-time insights, predictive capabilities, and promotes a new era of efficiency and precision in different engineering fields. The inception of digital twins can be traced back to the last decade's surge in personal computing, epitomized by the widespread use of smartphones and smartwatches. These devices, more than mere gadgets, are conduits for a vast stream of personalized data, feeding sophisticated mathematical and statistical models. They stand as a testament to how intimately technology has woven itself into the fabric of our daily lives, monitoring and predicting our health, habits, and preferences.

Digital twins represent a seamless integration of data and models. This integration, also known as data assimilation, allows models to continuously update and evolve with new data. As such, the digital twin becomes a dynamic, personalized replica of a physical system, whether it be a human body monitored by a smartwatch or an aircraft evaluated through sensors. In engineering, digital twins have revolutionized the way we interact with complex systems. These personalized models of complex structures, such as aircraft, enable engineers to accurately anticipate the behavior of these systems in different scenarios, thereby enhancing both safety and efficiency. Although the concept of digital twins is not novel, it has gained significant momentum in recent years thanks to advancements in sensor technology and computational power.

The roots of digital twins can be traced back to NASA's Apollo program. During the Apollo 13 mission, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) effectively used a digital twin of the spacecraft to simulate and resolve a life-threatening situation. This historical event underscores the power of digital twins in crisis management and problem-solving. Today, the application of digital twins extends far beyond aerospace. They are pivotal in environmental science, where they model forests, oceans, and climate patterns. In medicine, digital twins are reshaping personalized treatment plans and drug testing, promising a future of tailored healthcare. However, the journey to fully realize the potential of digital twins is not without challenges. Creating comprehensive digital replicas of complex systems like entire aircraft or the human body remains daunting due to computational limitations. Furthermore, ethical considerations, particularly around data privacy and security, are paramount.

Despite these challenges, the future of digital twins is bright. The convergence of predictive physics-based models, advanced machine learning techniques, and high-performance computing holds promise. The interdisciplinary field of computational science is playing a critical role in navigating these challenges, from enhancing engineering systems and understanding the natural world to improving medical outcomes. The potential of digital twins to tackle some of society's most pressing problems is not just a distant dream but an emerging reality.

The collaborative efforts of researchers, engineers, and policymakers will be instrumental in harnessing the full potential of this technology for the betterment of society. The journey of digital twins, from a concept to a transformative technology, is a vivid example of the boundless possibilities that lie at the confluence of data, modeling, and real-world application.

The Environmental Considerations for Sustainable Innovation

 Innovations for the present and the future present challenges that must be overcome in order to achieve a better quality of life and reap more benefits. Deforestation and exploration of critical minerals and mining materials have been a hot issue in Indonesia for more than two decades. For example, palm oil (Elaeis guineensis jacq) is a plantation crop that originated from West Africa, and initially, this palm oil was imported by Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles to the Bogor Botanical Gardens in 1848. Currently, palm oil holds significant economic value for both domestic and international industries. It serves as a crucial raw material for the production of oils and green renewable energy resources. This palm oil plantation and its derivatives products have a lot of functions in life, upstream, and downstream industries. Not only as resources for oil production, but it also produces a lot of waste that can be treated and reused for many derivative products, including the energy sector such as electrode materials, the medical sector such as wound dressings, and the biopolymer sector such as biosurfactant and bioplastics. In order to promote sustainability, various biomass waste can be treated and reused for development of value-added including biomaterials that present the huge potential for medical applications such as bone Tissue Engineering, and bioaerogel scaffolds.

On the other hand, many researchers have reported and explored palm oil waste as an advanced material for producing a graphene family. Graphene as a layered structure and a structural parent of all carbon allotrope has characteristics such as monoatomic, two-dimensional (2D), sp² hybridization with a honeycomb lattice structure and usually has sheets types including single-layer, bilayer and few-layer less than 10. Graphene is a thermodynamically stable, and a world’s thinnest material. Furthermore, the graphene is considered as an advanced material that is changing the world of science due to its extraordinary properties, including strong mechanical strength, high values of Young’s modulus, extraordinary chemical stability, high surface area (2630 m²/g), and excellent thermal conductivity (5000 W/m·s). A honeycomb-like discrete structure of graphene has the Young's modulus of 1.04?TPa. In addition, the finite element method (FEM) showed the Young's modulus value of graphene is 1.367 TPa. For graphene with zigzag and armchair sheets possess the values of modules Young are in the respective order 1.040 and 1.042 TPa, where TPa = Terapascal. The deviations in Young's modulus measurements of graphene are especially due to the intrinsic factors, defects and or uncertainties of microstructural. Usually, these defects are typically randomly distributed throughout the graphene lattice and also unpredictable. Since 2004 discovery of graphene for more than two decades is very important in the fields of scientific-technology and play a significant role in modern life.

Palm oil biomass also can be used as a carbon source such as for producing biochar and an activated carbon. These waste materials are cheaper, eco-friendly, and sustainable. They are easily and abundantly available, making them suitable as sustainable sources for synthesizing graphene families and others derivated carbon materials. Palm oil and its biomass waste have the potential to extend peoples’s lives and high values to build an advanced civilization with a high impact on modern life. The potential of palm oil products is no less than that of fossil fuels and mining sources. The largest palm oil plantations in the world have been developed by many countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia, Nigeria, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, and Honduras.