Finally, finding a parking space after a desperate 15-minute search, only to realize that it is already occupied by a small, hidden car, can be devastating. Students are especially aware of the dangers of parking: approximately 51% of parking violations on college campuses go undetected, often making it difficult for those with parking passes to find the spaces they paid for .
A group of enterprising BYU students is aiming to significantly, if not entirely, reduce parking violations in paid parking lots at the university and elsewhere. And their idea, an AI detection and tracking system called Spot Parking (more on that in a minute), just received major support and $12,000 in cash by winning the BYU Student Innovator of the Year (SIOY) Competition 2024.
“We knew Spot Parking had incredible potential, so we started looking everywhere for funding to help us bring our idea to life,” said Ryan Hagerty, a BYU pre-business student and Spot Parking team member. “SIOY has been an incredible experience in gaining recognition and funding. We now feel like we can really get started on parking enforcement.
Spot Parking uses cameras and AI to detect vehicles as they enter a parking lot, then assigns vehicles a unique tracking ID associated with their license plates. Likewise, each parking space in the system is classified as occupied or unoccupied, and the data is transmitted to the parking police via the Spot Parking app.
THE BYU Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering hosts the Student Innovator of the Year Award each year in partnership with the BYU Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. Competition has revived now-prosperous businesses Owlet, Khioné, Myostorm and much more over its 13-year history. Student teams compete to win a share of the total $50,000 in prize money.
The 2024 winners include:
FIRST PLACE ($12,000): PARKING SPACE: Revolutionizing the parking enforcement industry with machine learning and security cameras
SECOND PLACE ($10,000): SALT BLOCK INOCULUM: A solution to help farmers struggling with salinity
THIRD PLACE ($8,000): STRATUS: Automated Front Desk Tasks for Healthcare Using Artificial Intelligence
CROWDS FAVORITE ($2,000): MELBAS CANCER THERAPEUTICS: A biotechnical solution capable of successfully targeting and killing lung cancer cells
Instead of continually driving around to cite illegally parked cars, parking enforcement personnel can use Spot Parking technology to see exactly how many stalls have illegally parked cars, where they are, and how long they’ve been there. . The team says its solution improves on two existing solutions: affordable but labor-intensive vehicle-mounted license plate recognition cameras and individual parking sensors (above parking spaces). which require little maintenance but are very expensive.
“As we are able to more consistently enforce parking policies, people who park illegally will do so less often, opening up approximately 27% more spaces on college campuses to people who have actually paid for permits. -pass,” Hagerty said.
Spot Parking’s student team, which also includes students Cooper Young and Dean Smith, predicts its product will reduce parking enforcement costs by 65 percent, a considerable figure considering the average university spends more than $400,000 every year for parking control. Some, like the University of Arkansas, pay more than $2 million a year, according to student research.
But Young said Spot Parking’s technology isn’t just for universities: “Anywhere that pays for parking – airports, event venues, urban centers – can use this system to improve their parking situation,” he said. he declared.
The Spot Parking app integration caught the attention of Eric Ellis, one of five SIOY judges and President and CEO of FMI Aerostructures.
“There are a lot of people, besides students, who would pay money to find out where they could park at busy event venues or airports,” said Ellis, an alumnus of BYU’s mechanical engineering program. “I think you have yet another potential value stream in the application.”
The three students, who started brainstorming four years ago before heading out on the mission, said potential businesses will eventually be able to use Spot Parking technology by paying a one-time installation fee followed by an annual subscription, tailored to the size of the desired company. parking control zone. Currently, Spot Parking is working with the BYU Parking Office to beta test the technology.
They are also working to improve their AI tracking accuracy, which is already 95-97%, much higher than current parking enforcement methods. Other future features of the Spot Parking app will include live updated information that shows students and other public parking spots currently available.
“There has been a lot of buzz about Spot Parking among the judges in the SIOY demonstration phase, but the final competition has a different format and they have to impress a different group of judges,” said Jim Trent, assistant dean. of Iraq. A. Fulton College of Engineering. “Not only did they make a very polished and confident presentation, but they also achieved high marks from the judges in all three main criteria: engineering, innovation and impact. »
Photo by Brooklynn Jarvis Kelson/BYU Photo
Photo by Brooklynn Jarvis Kelson/BYU Photo
