Filipino Students Create App that Locates Vacant Parking Spaces in Real-Time

Imagine using your phone to help you look for a vacant space in any parking lot. Yes, no need to waste time going round in circles here; and neither do you have to fight off an army of other vehicles all claiming for the same space.

Carspace offers this service. This app is the winner at the recent Smart's Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) awards held at Discovery Primea in Makati City last May 10. Besting other 160 entries, it was the brainchild of college students from the University of San Jose-Recollectos (USJ-R) Kevin Cerdon, Jesury Thomas Gadiane, Noel Daniel Seldura, and their faculty adviser Eric Magto.

And while it may be quite similar to other parking apps found today, the difference here is that it's similar to Airbnb--but instead of booking accommodations, you do it with vehicles.

Other winners include Asia Pacific College for its entry “LYNIA” – a queue management system that aims to ease commuter queuing experience in Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) terminals (2nd place, Fiber Home Award) and Technological University of the Philippines–Manila for its solution “Beenotified”, a cost-effective and full cycle beehive monitoring system (3rd place, Huawei Award for Excellence).

The USJ-R team won the top prize of PHP300,000. The other winning schools would bring home cash prizes, amounting to PHP200,000 and PHP100,000, respectively. Non-winners got a consolation prize of  PHP50,000.