Among the 18 new occupations announced by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China (MOHRSS) in June this year, many people are interested in "digital twins application technician". What does digital twins mean? Do digital twins have anything to do with the metaverse? To answer both questions digital twins are virtual replicas of physical devices that data scientists and IT pros can use to run simulations before actual devices are built and deployed. Digital twins can also take real-time IoT data and apply AI and data analytics to optimize performance. And digital twins are an integral part of the metaverse.

In recent years, with the vigorous development of the digital economy, the "metaverse" is ushering in a new development opportunity.

Shanghai plans to have a 350 billion yuan metaverse economy within three years by cultivating industry champions, and boosting Shanghai’s software and information services sector to 1.5 trillion yuan and its electronic information manufacturing industry to 550 billion yuan by 2025.

In fact, the metaverse is the further development of digital twin technology, and virtual reality technology is integrated with it. When the digital twin technology is extended from the application of the industrial field to all aspects of people's productivity and lives, the embryonic form of the metaverse is formed. In addition to deploying, building, and maintaining the digital twin technology platform, the "digital twins application technician" also applies digital simulation modeling technology to build digital twin models. At the same time, machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and other technologies are applied to establish the data mapping relationship between the digital twin models and physical entities.

The emergence of the new career of "digital twins application technician" will play an important role in promoting the cultivation and influx of relevant talents in the future. The entry of a large number of talents will promote the application and development of digital twin technology in the fields of industrial intelligent manufacturing, smart transportation and smart city.