Award: ITE-2230734

This award supported novel Convergence Research by a team of scientists, software engineers, conservation practitioners, and federal agencies spanning the academic, industrial, NGO, and government sectors. Working closely over the two-year award period, the team merged diverse expertise, skillsets, experience and perspectives to solve one of society’s most pressing problems: bridging the gap between complex scientific data and effective decision-making in the growing Blue Economy.  

Our solution is an ocean-based Digital Twin software framework that converts 4-dimensional, high-resolution hydrodynamic (physics) models of ocean temperature, currents and waves, drone imagery and satellite-based benthic habitat maps, into dynamic, digital replicas of an ocean ecosystem. In the digital twin, users interact with complex scientific data via realistic, recognizable visualizations and a menu of interactive decision-support tools that turn data into actionable information. Our prototype focused on coral reef ecosystems where team leads had already identified an immediate need, but the platform is designed to accept formatted data and image files for a range of marine systems, including aquaculture and offshore wind farms.

Our product, Digital Reefs™, was recognized by Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards, featured in Curiosity Stream’s “Reefs of Hope” program, and highlighted in The Monocle Companion’s “50 Essays for a Brighter Future”.  The Digital Reefs™ name and logo was trade-marked, three IP patent applications were filed and one commercial license agreement finalized. In 2024, our start-up, Eddy Analytics, Inc. won a BlueSwell Accelerator award, one of eight bluetech companies selected to participate in the program. 

Digital Reefs™, the first coral reef digital twin, was developed with a cloud-based backend solution, enabling clients to access the twin via a web-based browser with no installation.  Our user-inspired interface, designed in Figma UX and implemented in Babylon, prompts users to enter the digital twin by choosing one location from those offered on a 3-D interactive globe implemented in CesiumJS. Upon landing on the coral reef island of their choice, users zoom and pan to specific areas and depths within the reef - a reef restoration site, a favorite tourism spot, the site of a proposed development. From a calendar, users select the particular year, month, day and even hour they need to visualize the conditions and access quantitative data. Use-inspired decision-support modules enable users to conduct point-source or area-based dispersal simulations of larvae, plastic or wildfire pollution from and to anywhere on the reef. “What-if scenarios” such as removing a causeway or constructing a channel, enable decision-makers to evaluate the impact of various proposals on reef conditions and to optimize the location and design of infrastructure projects.  With the Future Reefs module, visualizations and decision-support modules are available under projected future conditions, enabling decision-makers to optimize planning in a rapidly changing ocean.

The award supported the education and training of undergraduate and master’s level students, representing multiple disciplines from across the US, including the Savannah College of Art and Design and BYU Department of Statistics as well as PhD candidates in the MIT-WHOI, Stanford and SIO graduate programs, post-doctoral researchers, entry-level software engineers and designers, and ocean conservation and restoration trainees from Florida to Hawaii.  Students had the unique opportunity to participate in the NSF Convergence Accelerator curriculum and engage directly with experts in sectors very different from their own, broadening their horizons in preparation for impactful careers in the Blue Economy. Industry engineers were familiarized with the hurdles faced by conservation and restoration practitioners in their efforts to access and use data, often from remote places with limited internet. Academic scientists learned their way around business models and elevator pitches and gained new appreciation for both the technological advances made by our industry partners and their commitment to solving societal challenges.

Our hands-on user trials included participants from US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Navy, Hawaii’s Department of Aquatic Resources and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a prototype Digital Twin of Dongsha Atoll (Digital Dongsha) was developed for Taiwan’s National Academy of Resources.  Digital Reefs™ was showcased at high-level conferences including COP27 and 28 and DITTO 2023, at international tradeshows including Hannover Fair, via public presentations including SXSW in Austin, Texas, and Leadership San Francisco, and in popular articles and social media posts. Four peer-reviewed publications supported by this award are under review and/or in press in international journals.  

Last Modified: 02/02/2026
Modified by: Anne L Cohen