If you’ve ever parked on the University of Florida (UF) campus, you’re aware of the various parking restrictions. One recent alumnus has been working to create an app that alleviates some of the stress of navigating those parking restrictions.
Drew Gill (BSCS ’22) began creating EZ Park UF as a group project for his Human-Computer Interaction course. His professor, Jaime Ruiz, Ph.D., had each group come up with a problem to address that was relevant to UF students.
“We conducted interviews with potential users about what was currently difficult about the current parking system,” said Gill, who plans to join Affirm, a financial technology company, as a software engineer later this summer. “We sought to change the way students would find parking on campus so they could save time every day they came on to campus. After releasing it, I’ve realized it could be very helpful for UF Health employees and UF Visitors as well.”
With user-friendly features such as map or list views of campus parking lots and their specific limitations, the app makes campus parking information more accessible. Users can also find out the days and times the decal restrictions are in effect, if electric vehicle charging is available, and in some cases, information about how guest parking works. There are also built-in search features that allow users to specify which color decal they are looking for or what time/day they want to park on campus.
“One of my main goals for the next update, besides ensuring the app has all up-to-date parking info, is to allow users to see the parking changes for holidays, football games, and other important events,” Gill said.
Though UF currently offers a virtual campus map, the EZ Park UF app’s date, time and decal filters, plus the option of getting directions to a preferred lot, provide a more seamless user experience.
The app is free for anyone to download and use. It can be found in the Apple app store and the Google Play store.
Allison Logan
Marketing & Communications Specialist
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering