Wits University’s digital incubation hub, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, and the embass of the Netherlands have called for entries for their Digital Twin Hackathon – open to 15 students from South Africa and 15 students from the Netherlands.
The Digital Twin Hackathon holds the potential to benefit policy-making for the City of Johannesburg. Thirty university students hold the power to combine their diverse experiences to solve problems that could change the narrative of municipalities in South Africa. The goal is to transform their hypotheses into theories and, ultimately, action.
“Globally, the use of digital twins to modernise cities is becoming more well-adopted. Essentially, through the use of technology, real-world systems can be created and run in a sophisticated manner to gain insights more cost-effectively. Governments and city planners can use these systems to track, manage and solve problems before putting them in action,” explains Carol Jaji, Tshimologong digital skills manager. “Virtual representations of physical objects, such as buildings, equipment or even processes, can be rendered through the installation of live sensor data to create a digital twin with capabilities that extend to streaming the movements of people and traffic in real-time.”
The benefit of using digital twins has been seen in Rotterdam in the Netherlands since November 2021. Following the success of the biennial #cocreateMYCITY in Johannesburg, the concept of digital twins was discussed with great enthusiasm, particularly within the context of its use as an economic development and policy tool. The Digital Twin Hackathon is an extension of this and a unique opportunity to address challenges in South Africa.