– When I was younger, I often took the car with my parents. It often happened that we parked even 500 metres or a kilometre away from our destination because there was no parking space. I have decided to solve this problem – says Grzegorz Barański, who studies at the Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography.

Grzegorz started investigating the problem already when he was a high school student. It turned out that for example in Cracow, drivers spent on average ca. 10 minutes to find the parking space during rush hours.

Systems informing about free parking spaces are present for example in shopping centres. Entrance gates and sensors are used there. – These solutions are very expensive and can’t be installed everywhere, for example in street parking – our student explains.

– To collect data about free parking spaces, the app Where To Park uses open and publicly available databases, and also our own AI-based system and images from monitoring cameras – says Grzegorz Barański.

As for the size of the car, the system can assess if a given car fits into a given space. Mathematical operations and computer visions come in useful.

– Some cities have their own systems which make drivers’ lives easier, but I wanted to combine them into one solution. I created something that works not only in Poland, but in the whole world, for example in the USA or Scotland – the app developer stresses.

The app is tested by drivers in Warsaw, Poznań, Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot, Lublin, as well as in Los Angeles. Where to Park can be downloaded by anyone. – The parking database is not very large yet but we will be developing it systematically – the student promises.

Grzegorz Barański presented his idea during the National Final of the Competition Explory, which was held in October in Gdynia. He won an accreditation to one of the most important global scientific competitions Regeneron ISEF in the USA. He will go to Los Angeles in May 2024.

More information about the app can be found at: https://wheretopark.app/