Chris Wilkinson, CTO at SMD speaks at the UK Altair Technology Conference 2019. An XPRIZE challenge is designed to source new approaches to solve difficult problems thereby disrupting existing markets or creating new ones. Our oceans cover over 70% of the planet with only 5% explored. The ocean environment is hostile and technically challenging to operate within. The Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition was established to seek cheaper and faster solutions to survey the world’s oceans. This presentation is about one of the teams that entered the competition with a disruptive solution for ocean survey. The emerging role and importance of a digital twin is explored to support the solution as it scales from proof of concept to one that is fully industrialised.