Five business information technology students from Temasek Polytechnic, have recently came up with an ingenious app that has earned a positive feedback from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). If it takes off, it could very much change the way we park our cars.
Called eParking, it allows drivers to buy electronic coupons online. After drivers download the app and register their details, a QR code will be given to them. They will then have to print it out and stick it on the front windscreen. According to The Straits Times, it can be reused for different parking sessions and locations. The app was one of the 29 projects developed by Temasek Polytechnic final year students.
Here’s a look at it:
A Step In The Right Direction
If you’ve noticed, there are a lot of car parks surrounded by coupon tabs. Not only does the eParking app knock the annoyance of tearing coupons on the head, it could also improve our country’s litter woes.
Another clever feature is its push notifications. The app warns the driver when the parking session is going to expire. More often than not, drivers abandon the task at hand and rush off to their car to get another parking coupon out. With eParking, all they have to do is extend the session on the app itself.
Parking enforcement officers (PEOs) will be able to use the app to issue summons by simply scanning the QR code. There will also be a locking feature that prevents drivers from extending its session after a PEO has scanned it. That said, there’s no point in trying to outsmart the app.
The Biggest Challenge
When Vulcan Post spoke to the students, group leader Nittayawan Charoenkharung shared that the toughest challenge was having to grasp a programming language they were foreign with in just four months.
To top it off, they also had to learn the Android Studio software. She said, “When we started off, we had issues enhancing Google Maps to include carpark locations in Singapore which involved plotting the longitude and latitude of the individual sites.”
She continued, “We also put in a lot of research time to the process flow of drivers as well as parking enforcement officers so as to maximise benefits to both parties.”
Fingers crossed for eParking’s successful release. If it does, it will definitely change how drivers use parking coupons. At the very least, kudos to the team for coming out with the brilliant idea, and most importantly, learning how to code at such a young age! When we were in school, we were busy cutting classes and hanging out with our friends!
Featured image credit: The Straits Times Seah Kwang Peng
