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.

Almost as soon as I arrived in Taipei to cover the world’s second largest smart-cities conference, I was treated to an unplanned demonstration of the power of these technologies to meet citizens’ needs.

On my first night, after ordering food to go near the Zhongxiao Fuxing Station, a friend and I returned via cab to my hotel to catch up and eat.