It’s a pivotal moment for the Digital Twin and 3D geospatial ecosystem in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). This was evident to SuperDNA 3D Lab CEO Jatinder Kukreja and CTO Mike Festa as they attended the Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure (YII) Awards last week in Amsterdam. The show spotlighted rapid innovation and cross-industry collaboration in geospatial technology and digital twins.
Much like the sense of community highlighted at the Cesium Developer Conference in Philadelphia, the YII Awards prioritized not just technology announcements, but the people putting new digital tools to work in real infrastructure projects. Kukreja and Festa found themselves not only learning firsthand from industry leaders, but also contributing to the ongoing dialogue about how geospatial intelligence and simulation are transforming city planning, ITS, and infrastructure as a whole.
Learning by Connecting
From sessions led by Bentley Systems and Cesium teams to conversations with directors in transportation and infrastructure, everyone at YII seemed present and invested. Titles like—engineers, strategists, and project managers shared their successes and their challenges. “You could feel the excitement and openness,” said Festa. “Every meeting was an opportunity to learn and share, and the real discussion was about solving ITS’ toughest problems.”
Key Learnings
The transportation industry is shifting from viewing digital twins as visual aids to using them as dynamic, data-driven engines for scenario planning and operational optimization.
Bentley Systems and Cesium continue to push open standards and interoperability: SuperDNA 3D Lab’s experience with these platforms allowed for granular simulation—whether mapping congestion in urban corridors or modeling complex tolling systems.
Patrick Cozzi from Bentley and Cesium reinforced a message echoed at the conference of the next leap of bringing together geospatial data with tools like Cesium to deliver value faster. AI is fast becoming a staple in workflows and products for Bentley Systems, as highlighted by Benteley’s CEO Nicholas Cumins.
“AI is poised to transform infrastructure. At Bentley, our vision is for AI to empower infrastructure engineers—not replace them. Trustworthy AI, built on infrastructure context, can improve engineering productivity and transform workflows across project and asset lifecycles… The greatest challenge to delivering better and more resilient infrastructure is engineering capacity… There simply aren’t enough engineers in the world to do all the work that needs to be done. AI promises a step change in productivity that can help close this capacity gap.”
Experiencing Real Impact
Throughout the event, Kukreja and Festa saw projects from finalists leveraging digital twins for predictive maintenance, incident management, and long-term infrastructure planning. The analytics and visualization capability of Cesium 3D tiles, paired with Bentley’s infrastructure modeling, offered a clear answer for agencies looking to streamline integration and deliver actionable insights.
The conference was a launchpad for actual change. Meetings with firms like Turner & Townsend, Pennoni, and other thought leaders crystallized for the SuperDNA 3D Lab team just how rapidly ITS and the relationship with digital twins are evolving. Shared challenges—like siloed legacy data, manual system integration, and scaling simulation to city-level—became focal points for new collaborations and product ideas.
Learning from Real-World Deployments
YII 2025’s finalists didn’t just talk theory—they shared how digital twins are powering tomorrow’s railways and mega-projects today. Italian firm Italferr S.p.A. described its journey using digital twins in railway modernization, from Palermo to Catania, while others presented the challenges of bringing together bridge, tunnel, and city data for broad, actionable insight.
A key thread throughout: the true power of digital twins lies not just in stunning visuals, but in harmonized data and seamless, cross-team collaboration. Too often, the “twin” is held back by siloed data and disconnected systems—a challenge the SuperDNA 3D Lab platform aims to tackle with its cross-platform integration and actionable scenario templates.
Experience-Driven Change and Industry Takeaways
For SuperDNA 3D Lab, every finalist story and peer conversation became both a motivator and a checklist. The realization: what’s needed isn’t another dashboard, but playbooks and tools that can be replicated across regions and teams—accelerating the path from concept to real-world deployment.
“Our biggest lesson from Amsterdam,” remarked Kukreja, “was that the digital twin and ITS relationship is maturing. Those who crack the code on data integration and automated simulation will lead the next wave of intelligent infrastructure.”
The Next Chapter for Geospatial Data
Sessions, demos, and private meetings pointed to a new era in infrastructure: one where photorealistic models and real-time feeds don’t just inform, but actively accelerate decision-making and stakeholder engagement. YII 2025 was a reminder that what’s next depends not only on technology, but on community—collaborating and iterating to turn digital ambition into measurable outcomes.
SuperDNA 3D Lab returns from Amsterdam even more committed to this collaborative vision, working to empower organizations worldwide to move seamlessly between the digital and physical, and to realize the full actionable potential of geospatial data.
Looking Forward
The YII Awards left SuperDNA 3D Lab with actionable lessons, inspiration, and momentum for their mission: empowering transportation agencies to use geospatial modeling and real-world data to forecast, adapt, and thrive. Just as at the Cesium Developer Conference, the Amsterdam event celebrated the contributions not just of technology developers, but of the community building the future of intelligent infrastructure.
“It’s all about building an open ecosystem where everyone wins.” That message rings true for SuperDNA 3D Lab, as they continue to leverage Cesium and Bentley platforms to reimagine real-time planning and scenario testing for transportation’s next era.
Header image credit: Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
SuperDNA 3D Lab is a full-service 3D solutions provider. It creates 3D content, distributes it across various channels, and manages it in its own cloud servers for elevated eCommerce and other endpoints.
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