Monmouth Faculty and Students Collaborate on Innovative Apps, Paving the Way for Patents

Davian Albarran '24, Andrew McGovern and Gianna Piroso '24 collaborate at Hawk Tank.

Monmouth University faculty and students from the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) and the Department of Communication recently collaborated to develop applications that are leading to patents.

FLUDZ

Raman Lakshmanan, Ph.D., specialist professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, and recent computer science graduate Ava Taylor '23 have successfully filed a non-provisional U.S. patent and trademark application for FLUDZ, a crowd-sourced flood data distribution service. The application was granted in December and is the University's first patent in 18 years.

The service originated from Taylor's honors thesis research on the lack of flood data at the local level and the need for a cost-effective way to report and track flooding.

With the FLUDZ service, users can report flooded areas, worsening conditions, road hazards, flood depth estimates, and more in real time, while also receiving information on safe evacuation routes. According to Lakshmanan and Taylor, current emergency alert systems are not as effective as they could be in protecting the public during flood events. This app aims to fill a void at the local level for more than 167 million people in the U.S. exposed to floods risks-a number expected to increase as climate, urbanization, and land use changes progress. The system and method for local flood data collection and distribution developed for FLUDZ could also be adapted for other applications, including pollution reporting, tree/plant disease tracking, reservoir overflow monitoring, and more.

ParkShark

Amanda Stojanov, M.F.A., assistant professor of digital media in the Department of Communication, and Gianna Piroso '24 recognized the need for a more efficient system to assist college students in locating parking spots on campus. They collaborated with Lakshmanan to develop their concept for the ParkShark app into a viable product and service. Recent CSSE graduate Davian Albarran '24 and current student Andrew McGovern designed and developed an innovative combination of IoT (Internet of Things) hardware and software to assist commuting students to find available parking spots.

Commuters can input their class schedules, arrival times on campus, preferred lots into the ParkShark system. The geofenced service notifies users of lot occupancy and available spots in their ParkShark app. As a commuter parks in an available spot, the service detects the change and updates the app for other users. When a vehicle leaves a spot, the service registers the movement and marks the spot as available. The system also provides lot availability based on arrival time using historical data.

During the 2024-2025 school year, ParkShark Phase 2 will test the product and service with 25 users, expanding to 250 users to refine the technology before filing a non-provisional patent in mid-2025. Phase 3 aims to launch the service to all commuting students and faculty at Monmouth.

ParkShark can be extended for use in commercial parking lots, city and town parking, and event parking.

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