City of London Schools students present their winning digital twin stories

A collaboration of researchers from King’s College London led by Christine Aicardi, alongside science fiction author, Stephen Oram and supported by the DT Hub, invited young people aged 13-17 from the City of London Family of Schools to take part in a storywriting challenge with a digital twin theme: Mirror machine: digital twins that model, shadow and affect the real world.

Entrants were given the writing prompt, “What if an all-seeing, all-knowing machine could connect every dot of data and replicate the world – the flow of planes and of cars, of energy and of people, of healthy cells and of diseased cells? What if that reflection then re-entered through the data dots to alter the world, for better or for worse?”

As a result, we are delighted to congratulate Shriyaa and Alex on their winning digital twin stories!

Shriyaa’s story Disillusion is an exceptional tale of the power and peril of technology, after the creation of TerraSim – ‘the most comprehensive digital twin of our planet’.

Alex’s story Need for the Shadow paints a superb scene of a shadowy world where we come to accept the pathway that diverges from our inherent beliefs and dreams.

Alex said: “It was really interesting to explore how our future might be shaped by new tech innovations, especially around the potential repercussions that could come about. Digital twins offer an exciting future, but it is important not to lose sight of our humanity.”

This was no ordinary writing challenge, and involved the students taking part in two workshops. The first helped them to explore the concept of digital twins and their potential impact on our world – developing students’ understanding of digital twin use in industry sectors such as aviation, healthcare and built environment and also considering moral issues. The second workshop focused on storytelling skills, looking at the life-cycle of a story and presenting top tips and writing guidance.

The competition was judged in two age groups, 13-14 and 15-17, and each story was 1000 words in length. You can read all the stories from the finalists here.

We wish the students every success for the future.

Join our DT Hub Younger Members Network here.

Photos: (left to right): Competition winners Shriyaa and Alex plus finalists Kira, Aymie and Spencer pictured with Christine Aicardi and Stephen Oram. Guest speaker Paul Wilson, Chair of Smart Cities World Advisory Board, talks about how we are using AI and connecting digital twins in our cities today, particularly to tackle global challenges like climate change. Shriyaa and Alex chat about their winning stories. Alex reads Need for the Shadow to the room. The winners took part in a Q&A discussion, exploring their stories in the context of the real world alongside the King’s College research team. Shriyaa talks about Disillusion.

The memory of King’s alum and science fiction author, Sir Arthur C. Clarke was also represented on the panel by Tom Hunter, current director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award prize for science fiction book of the year.