SAS digital twin earns Fast Company technology recognition

SAS said in a press release that Fast Company named it to the 2026 Next Big Things in Tech list. The company received recognition in the Applied AI category for a 3D digital twin used by Sterilcentral, Denmark's largest medical sterilization provider.

SAS built a virtual model of key operations at Sterilcentral's Herlev facility, which supplies sterile surgical instruments for about 1,000 procedures each day across seven hospitals. The model uses operational data to simulate the washing, drying, packaging and delivery process, helping staff identify bottlenecks and test changes without disrupting the facility.

The digital twin runs on SAS Viya and uses immersive 3D environments from Epic Games' Unreal Engine. Sterilcentral also used synthetic data generated in the environment to train computer vision models that check whether workers wear protective equipment correctly.