BlockShare

Login Page
New Site Application
Information Display for a Parking Site
Search Result for Destination
Administrator's Main Page
Supplier's Main Page
Retrieve Password
Signup Account
User's Main Page

Inspiration

There are many places and situations where people suffer a lot looking for parking lots. Then why not make a platform where people can find info and guidance that can help them find info and direct them to the most suggested parking spaces near their destination even before they got there? This can significantly minimize people's concern about the possible unexpected time spent for parking and greatly help their time management.

What it does

BlockShare is a platform where users can find information about the nearest and most suggested parking spaces by just entering their destination. The search will be accurate to exact parking lot since BlockShare tracks dynamic database system for each cooperated public parking station and every registered parking lots. You are probably interested in what do we mean "registered". Yes! Except for the public parking resources, people can also choose private parking spaces that are registered on the platform. This system helps both the suppliers and the users. Why? Imagine you go to work every morning and come back late every day, isn't that cool if you can rent out your private parking lot during the daytime? For our users, this also means significantly amount of extra parkable places. Also, since we keep track base on each parking spot rather than on a parking station by connecting with each parking station's data system, which is likely to be made by adding sensors to each parking spot and constantly track feedback, people won't get confused in front of the "2 spots left out of 800" in a parking station and spend even hours trying to find the place to park. Moreover, we also applied DocuSign's API for electronic signature to help us validate our user and individual supplier's information, making the whole system more secure and reliable.

How I built it

The team is split into two parts, one makes front-end and one in charge of algorithms and back-end. Front-end builds the html system and display pages. The back-end builds the user input capture, data storage, and user feedback system.

Challenges I ran into

We first developed our back end with java, and tried to use java EE for the server support. But this made it over complicated to realize. Then we found a way of simulating constant req&res by constantly running java's Main and interact with the users through databases, which means, the users' input will all be collected as .db and system will ask java system whenever needs an feedback. However, we just decided to build up another server system using node.js, or, more specifically, keeling-js, to take over most parts of user-request responces.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We ran into obstacles and met severe situation with limited time but abundant work. However, as described above, we successfully found an alternate way of realizing our original design, while developing another solution to our system. Both of them worked well especially when cooperating.

What I learned

Different possibilities in interacting with user through vaious types of data-structures and platforms. I also got more familiar with the request and responds systems. This is my personal first time to develop web base one real server and also cooperate with db analysis. It is a lot of pressure but even more fun!

What's next for BlockShare

It is possible to make BlockShare a more user-friendly platform. We will also consider making it into a mobile App so that it can provide its functions more conveniently. We can also cooperate with some great map-service providing companies like Google to make a greater influence in people's life. Imagine one day when you search your destination, your app not only guides your journey but also find the best parking spot for you, how convenient!