AI‑Driven Strategy and Expansion into New Fields

In the opening greeting, Yuji Ito, CEO of FORUM8, presented an AI-driven strategy. Along with the relocation of our Osaka office, we will establish a private AI data center and strengthen AI‑based design support and our server infrastructure. He also introduced our expansion into new fields—such as the Space-F8 satellite solution—through the use of digital‑twin technologies, in addition to autonomous driving and robotics.

Digital Twin Utilization and Next‑Generation Assessment Methods Using Environmental Data Integration and AI

"From Digital Twins to AI - Next-Generation Energy and Environmental Assessment Pioneered by Environmental Informatics -"

Lecturer: Prof. Haruko Murakami Wainwright

(MIT Norman C. Rasmussen Career Development Professor, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Prof. Wainwright conducts research in the fields of waste disposal, nuclear power plants, and environmental informatics, and works on improving global and environmental systems through mechanism modeling. In her lecture, she presented a new assessment method that combines environmental data integration and AI. Her core research themes are as follows:

(1) Multi‑scale and multi‑data integration
(2) Integration of simulation and machine learning (AI)

➡ “Nowadays, environmental data obtained from drones, aircraft, satellites, and ground sensors varies in resolution and noise characteristics, making data integration and the handling of uncertainty important challenges. In her research, she presented assessment and predictive methods using AI in these fields.

- Radiation monitoring in Fukushima
- Underground water pollution monitoring
- Soil moisture management

According to her presentation, by pre‑simulating numerous weather patterns in a digital twin and using the results as training data for a neural network, it became possible to compute dispersion predictions in just a few seconds—compared with about 80 minutes previously. This enables large‑scale simulations previously performed on supercomputers to be pre‑trained and used as an emulator that can run on a laptop or in the cloud.

As an initiative for educational and social implementation, she carried out a STEM education program in regions with many mines and energy facilities, using commercially available low‑cost sensors. Also, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, she is advancing the use of supercomputer resources to enhance emergency response and environmental monitoring, as well as to improve public environmental awareness.

In the Q&A session after the lecture, she and the participants discussed how to build large simulation environments and how to visualize invisible risks such as internal flooding and underground cavities, which are major issues in Japan. She also introduced cutting‑edge geophysical exploration technologies used in the United States.

Realizing a Cross-Sectoral Platform through AI Integration and Digital Twins

Following the Prof. Wainwright's lecture, we presented FORUM8 products and technologies that enable a cross‑sectoral platform through AI integration and digital twins. Focusing on F8-AI Cloud CAD, we explained F8-AI UC Support functions that allow design modifications using generative AI chat and natural language. We also introduced concrete examples showing how our digital‑twin platform, which can integrate diverse data such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s digital national land data, can be utilized in a wide range of fields including urban disaster prevention, energy management, and human‑flow and traffic analysis.