On Thursday, October 9, 2025, the American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), in collaboration with Birmingham City University (BCU), UK, successfully organized the 5th capacity-building training session on “Impact of Immersive Technology: Digital Twin and Beyond.” This session was part of the ongoing British Council funded Transnational Education (TNE) Exploratory Grant initiative project titled “Developing an international professional certification program for digital manufacturing at AIUB.”

The session began with an opening address by Dr. Chowdhury Akram Hossain, Associate Professor & Department Head (CoE), Faculty of Engineering, AIUB. The main session of the program was taken by the keynote speaker Dr. Vijay Venkatesh, Associate Professor, Birmingham City University, UK, who expertly guided participants through the landscape of next-generation digital technologies.

He began with a foundational overview of immersive technology before showcasing its practical applications through his pioneering projects, including an AR Welding Training system, a JLR VR Training environment, and an ALGAE Digital Twin project. He dedicated significant attention to demystifying Digital Twin technology, explaining its architecture and critical industrial role. The discussion then progressed to strategic considerations, focusing on extracting value from immersive tech and analyzing the global landscape by differentiating top experimenters from implementers, enriched further by insights from relevant projects in India.

An engaging Q&A session facilitated a rich exchange of ideas, where participants showed keen interest in the practical software tools and platforms used for developing VR and AR applications. The event concluded with a virtual token of appreciation presented to the keynote speaker by Dr. Md. Ehasanul Haque, Senior Assistant Professor & Department Head (IPE), Faculty of Engineering, AIUB. The program, attended by more than 86 participants from academia and industry, ended with a virtual group photo, successfully illuminating the path toward adopting immersive technologies in Bangladesh's manufacturing sector.