Students work on ‘Digital Twins’
Students Kirah Colston and Lauren Gross get ready to present about digital twins and artificial intelligence. (photo:Ben Pounds )
Two students, Kirah Colston and Lauren Gross presented at the American Museum of Science and Energy in May, alongside their teacher Mark Buckner. Lynne Parker, director of the AI Tennessee Initiative at the University of Tennessee also spoke about her own organization’s work and artificial intelligence generally. In an interview, she spoke glowingly about Colston and Gross’s presentation and the students work on digital twins. Their work was with Wildcat Manufacturing, which is part of a dual-enrollment class at ORHS.
“They did an amazing job. Very knowledgeable about what they are working on, and they see the big picture of how all of the different components of a project can fit together to give an experience to either the user or the industry that’s using their work. So, I was very impressed with the depth of their understanding,” Parker said.
Colston explained digital twins simulate “real world entities or processes.”
One example of digital twins the students gave was the project to create “Giants of Oak Ridge” which involved creating both statues and digital avatars of historical Oak Ridge figures that could talk in the historical person’s voice.
Similarly, “cloned” voices may be part of the Scarboro 85 Monument in Oak Ridge’s A.K. Bissell Park. Visitors may get a chance to listen to virtual voices from people who helped end racial segregation at Oak Ridge Schools. Colston said this was her favorite project.
Gross said she was excited about the Cobot project which makes digital copies of machines that help build tent pegs for the US Army.