Personnel certification · Examined
Certified Digital Twins Business Consultant
Fraunhofer Personnel Certification Authority
Confirmed knowledge
About Me
Buildings are systems. I treat them like one.
I’m Rehan Khan, a digital twin lead based in Cologne, Germany. I define digital twin architecture, roadmaps and delivery for built assets and infrastructure, joining IoT sensor streams, building automation, BIM and 3D models, GIS and simulation into one working environment. I set up my independent practice out of a simple frustration: most “digital twins” stop being accurate the day the building opens.
Fraunhofer-certifiedDigital Twins Business ConsultantHow I Work
Five working principles.
01
Model reality, not intent
Twins track what's actually built and installed, not just what was designed on paper.
02
Readiness before rollout
I assess before I model, so budget goes toward systems that are actually ready for one.
03
One model, every discipline
Architecture, engineering, construction, and operations read from the same source.
04
Operations is the real client
A twin that stops being useful at handover has failed at its only job.
05
Independent of platform
I recommend the stack that fits your asset, not the one I’m paid to resell.
Profile
One specialist, end to end.
This is a one-person practice. The person you talk to at scoping is the person who does the work.
RK
Rehan Khan
Digital Twin Lead — Architecture, IoT Integration & Simulation
Cologne, Germany
I have 5+ years leading digital twin work and a career that began in structural design for highway infrastructure. I work across the full lifecycle: stakeholder discovery and use-case definition, then architecture, implementation, validation and continuous iteration. I have led cross-functional teams of engineers, developers, BIM and GIS specialists across 15+ international organisations.
5+
Years leading digital twins
4
EU research programmes
15+
International partner orgs
1.2
M.Sc. thesis grade, TU Dresden
Expertise
- Digital twin architecture, roadmaps, MVP scoping & scaling
- IoT & real-time data: MQTT, Azure IoT Hub, InfluxDB, building automation telemetry
- BIM coordination, IFC / BCF / openBIM and Common Data Environments
- Simulation: 4D planning, discrete-event simulation, energy modelling
- Data governance & information management across the twin lifecycle
- Scan-to-BIM: 3D LiDAR scanning, point clouds & as-built verification
- AI/ML for twins: conversational IFC querying, generative information extraction
- Business cases & ROI for executive audiences (Fraunhofer methodology)
Languages
EnglishC1 · Professional
GermanB1 · Intermediate
HindiNative
ArabicA2 · Basic
Certifications
Certified in digital twin consulting.
Formal certification in the business side of digital twins, so the work starts from value and use cases, not technology for its own sake.
Continuing Professional Development
Digital Twins for Senior Leaders
Cranfield University & Digital Twin Hub
Selected Projects
Twins built for real assets.
Delivered through my work at DigitalTwin Technology GmbH and four EU research programmes: ASHVIN, CIRCUIT, RoBetArme and PRECEPT.
Rotterdam Port quay wall twin
A predictive digital twin that combines structural monitoring data with numerical models to support asset monitoring and maintenance decisions.
Residential portfolio operations
Predictive maintenance and energy optimisation that fuses BIM, building automation and IoT sensor data into operational decision support.
Simulation on live sites
4D planning, discrete-event simulation and robotic construction workflows, deployed as production modules on construction sites.
Dubai airport operations twin
A digital twin prototype for airport operations, taken from concept and ideation through 3D modelling and solution development.
Experience
From structural design to digital twins.
Oct 2022 – Jun 2026
Digital Twin Manager
DigitalTwin Technology GmbH · Cologne
Led the end-to-end digital twin product lifecycle for a construction-focused SaaS platform. Standardised twin frameworks that bring BIM, GIS and IoT under one governance model, and led technical delivery on four EU research programmes.
Sep 2021 – Sep 2022
Digital Twin Engineer / VDC Engineer
DigitalTwin Technology GmbH · Cologne
Built twin models for infrastructure demonstrators and ran LiDAR scanning and point-cloud processing at sites in Germany, Iceland and Denmark.
Jan 2021 – Aug 2021
Research Assistant, Institute of Construction Informatics
TU Dresden
Integrated real-time building automation data with IES-VE energy simulation for a building digital twin, and built Unity VR visualisations for energy optimisation.
Nov 2018 – Dec 2018
Intern
Nicholas O’Dwyer Ltd · Dublin
Worked with the firm as independent engineer, assessing the contractor’s claim on a highway project in Zambia, and supported Eurocode structural analysis.
Jan 2015 – Sep 2017
Assistant Structural Engineer
ISAN Corporation India · Gurugram
Structural design of national and state highway infrastructure, including culverts, bridges, underpasses and tunnels, coordinated between Indian and South Korean teams.
Education
Civil engineering roots, computational focus.
From structural civil engineering to computational methods and now digital twins for infrastructure and cities.
Sep 2026 – presentIn progress
Executive Master, Digital Twins for Infrastructure and Cities
UPM Madrid · BME Budapest · ENPC Paris
A joint European executive programme on digital twins at infrastructure and city scale.
2017 – 2020Thesis grade 1.2
M.Sc. Advanced Computational and Civil Engineering (ACCESS)
TU Dresden, Germany
Thesis at the Institute of Construction Informatics: Using Sensor Data from Building Automation Systems in Digital Twins.
Read the thesis2010 – 2014
B.Tech Civil Engineering
Aligarh Muslim University, India
Foundation in structural and civil engineering, leading into structural design work on highway infrastructure.
Toolkit