Two of those cities, Columbus and Warner Robins, Georgia, received the awards for projects that involve digital twins. But what, exactly, is a digital twin? And how can the technology be used to solve community problems?

We talked with John Taylor, the Frederick Law Olmsted Professor and associate chair for graduate programs and research innovation in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Neda Mohammadi, city infrastructure analytics director in Georgia Tech’s Network Dynamics Lab to get some answers. These are edited highlights from an interview.