Spark: A Smart Parking Lot Monitoring System

Parking on a college campus is understood to be a challenge for commuters. With a rising matriculation rate in the United States, the task of finding parking on an expansive campus grows even more daunting. However, the rising prominence of the Internet of Things has initiated a paradigm shift in data-analysis computing. The point of data collection is often outlier locations, removed from existing infrastructure, and parking lots are no exception. Using proximity sensors, solar power, and cellular communication, we can create such an IoT system to monitor parking lot in- and outflows. The parking data collected can be analyzed to create a smarter, more efficient parking experience.