Sarnia, Ontario (January 31, 2018)—Parking BOXX, the North American-based parking systems manufacturer and software developer, announced today the recipient of the first Parking Solutions Scholarship for Technical Innovation in Parking Solutions. The award was won by Patience Lo, a design student at the University of New South Wales, who proposed an app that addresses misuse, forgery, and theft of credentials for disabled parkers to ensure that designated HP parking spaces remain available for those who need them. As part of the award, Ms. Lo will receive a $1,000 scholarship from Parking BOXX.
The Parking Solutions Scholarship was introduced by Parking BOXX in 2017 to encourage students to apply technical solutions to common parking problems. Entrants submitted a 500 word essay on the subject of technology innovation in parking solutions and how parking can be made more user-friendly, efficient, or otherwise enhanced. The essays were judged by a panel of parking professionals on their originality, creativity, and persuasiveness.
“We received many creative and interesting submissions from across the globe, including as far away as Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia,” said Renee Smith, Parking BOXX’s CTO. “The entries were excellent, but one stood out among this impressive field. We are proud to award the inaugural Parking Solutions Scholarship to Patience Lo.”
The award program was designed to encourage students to offer their perspectives on how technological innovation can improve upon the parking solutions available today. Technology plays a predominant role in parking innovation, and searching out technological advancements to enhance parking solutions is a core value of Parking BOXX.
The most popular theme among the entries was the use of an app to help improve parking solutions. Many applicants envisioned parking apps that would help locate available parking spots, improve payment methods, and help improve the overall parking experience. Other notable proposals included stackable parking, conveyor belt parking, the complete redesign of parking lots, and the use of robots and robotics as part of their parking solutions. The Parking BOXX panel carefully reviewed hundreds of entries and after narrowing the field to the top 5, the Parking BOXX team chose the submission that provided the most original, inventive, and practical parking solution.
“I think that availability of accessible parking is an issue that’s happening everywhere, no matter where you are, and it’s an issue that hasn’t nearly been tackled enough,” said Patience Lo. “In fact too often local approaches and policies just end up making people with disabilities pay for the sins of able-bodied abusers.”
Parking BOXX would like to thank all the applicants for their original and creative submissions. We were pleased by the overwhelming global response and the Parking Solutions Scholarship will be returning in 2018!
About Parking BOXX
Headquartered in North America, Parking BOXX is a leading parking system provider. Parking BOXX accommodates the needs of small lots as well as large, complex parking systems. Parking BOXX has over 75 years of parking industry experience, dealers throughout North America, and parking sites in operation from Los Angeles to the Caribbean to Newfoundland. Parking BOXX systems reliably run sites with thousands of daily vehicles and millions in annual parking revenue. For more information on how Parking BOXX can help meet your parking system and parking lot equipment needs, please visit https://parkingboxx.com, call 888-991-2565, or email info(at)parkingboxx(dot)com.