A new project aims to create a computer replica (复制品) of an entire city. It will allow experts to perform real-time resilience (适应力) testing to see how is infrastructure (基础设施) will perform in the face of challenges such as climate change and population growth.

Known as the “digital twin”, the technology has already been adopted by Formula One teams and engine makers like Rolls Royce, but its use to this degree didn’t exist.

A partnership between Newcastle University and Northumbrian Water will recreate Newcastle based on data from across the city and test its resilience in possible emergencies. Professor Chris Kilsby said, “You can try lots of things with the twin in the case of a city. I think of it as a replica that you can play with and do unimaginable things to see what would happen. The changes can be seen immediately — from observing what would happen if the river Tyne rises by a few meters to what the city would look like if the population has aged over a certain period of time. It could also be used to model human behavior, for example, determining the most likely roads people would use in the event of a food.”

Newcastle University is working on a data platform with lots of dynamic parts like traffic, water, population, etc. Much of the data is coming from the university’s Urban Observatory project, which has monitors all over the city checking pollution, water quality and biodiversity.

In 2012 an event known locally as the “Toon monsoon” took place, with a month’s worth of rain falling in two hours during the evening rush hour, causing £ 8 m worth of damage. The Toon monsoon caused a breakdown to the city because we just didn’t design anything for that sort of event. There was no one to blame. The city just couldn’t resist the heavy rain.

The digital twin will allow the city not only to react in real time to such strange weather events, but also to test its resilience in endless potential future emergencies.

Chris Jones, research and development manager at Northumbrian Water, imagined the project’s “amazing possibilities”, saying that in time it could be applied to any city with accessible data.

Meetings. Answering emails. Ever feel too busy at work to get any actual work done? According to a new report from Microsoft, our workplaces have a serious productivity (生产率) problem. 64% of 31,000 employees surveyed struggled with having the time and energy to do their job. Subjects said that countless meetings were their number one productivity killer. Other reports also supported Microsoft’s study. A report from EY-Parthenon found American worker productivity decreased by 2.7% in the first quarter this year compared with the same period last year, marking the fifth quarter in a row that worker productivity has dropped.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft, with its enormous investment (投资) in Al tools, says Al is the solution. Never mind that it was Microsoft’s own technology — Teams, Office, Outlook — that promised productivity savings and delivered the opposite. Should we still put faith in Microsoft to solve the problem with new tools that will “rethink workdays” and “protect focus time for creative work”?

So what is the answer to the productivity puzzle? Big companies need to look no further than small businesses, which have been showing how to be productive. Visit a business with fewer than 100 employees and you will find people there at their desks, behind counters, or in front of machines. There are fewer formalized meetings. Employees can make their own choices. Decisions are made without committees. Investments are made with more of a gut (直觉的) feeling. Technology is used when it is clear that it can save time and make money.

Microsoft would have you believe that buying its Al technology will solve productivity issues. However, what is the problem is not too little technology but how to use it in a smart way.

Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to connect the brain with computers. Brain-computer Interface (BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.

Recently, two scientists, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytehnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, showed a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person’s thoughts. In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.

“Our brain has billions of body cells (细胞). These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓) to the body part to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the body part.” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with outer world and also to control machines.”

The scientists designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp (头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer finds meanings of the signals and commands the wheelchair with an engine. The wheelchair also has two cameras that tell objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.

Prof. Millan, the team leader, says “Scientists keep improving the computer software that finds meanings of brain signals and turns them into simple commands. The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two kinds: communication, and controlling objects. One example is this wheelchair.”

He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can get advantages from. And the other is to ensure that they can use the technology over a long period of time.