University Management Letter of Transmittal

I need a Letter Of Transmittal about the research report above.

TO: Dr. instructor, Chief Executive Officer
FROM: Me
DATE: October 27, 2019
SUBJECT: Research Summary
Introduction
The University of South Florida is ranked as the top university in Florida and the fifth best in the
nation. With an enrollment of over 50,000 students, it is the fourth largest public university in
the state. While the population on campus continues to thrive, some problems have begun to
arise as well. Parking is a significant issue that has caused many students immense frustration
and anxiety. It can take some students hours of driving around and following other students who
may be leaving in the hopes of finding a place to park. This often results in students being late to
class or meetings. The university has added new parking areas in an attempt to combat traffic
congestion and parking issues, and many students are even recommending more parking garages.
While constructing another parking lot or garage on campus may seem like an easy and simple
fix, there is a more efficient solution. By implementing sensors in each parking space, drivers
are able to see open spaces instantly with the use of an app. This can reduce wandering traffic by
letting drivers be notified of parking and allow them to get to classes on time. Our group plans
to do extensive research on sensors, how they work, and the best way to implement them to
maximize their effectiveness. We would also like to add a license plate detection system along
with the sensors. That way parked vehicles without the correct parking permits will be
discovered and located immediately. This will make the process of checking vehicle permits a
lot easier and more efficient than the current drive-by method. Overall, our plan will be simple,
cost effective, and will allow traffic to flow smoothly even during the peak of a busy day.
4 Scholarly Sources:
•
Sahfutri, Anggi et al. “Smart Parking Using Wireless SensorNetwork System.” IEEE
Xplore Digital Library, 2018, EBSCO Industries, Inc., https://ieeexplore-ieeeorg.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/document/8605241?arnumber=8605241&SID=EBSCO:edseee.
This document introduces a wireless sensor networking smart parking system that
provides information on whether a parking space is available or not. HC-SR04 ultrasonic
sensors are installed in each parking space and the data retrieved is managed by arduino
mega 2560 and then sent to the monitoring area via Wireless Sensor Network Xbee-Pro
S2 communication. Visuals are used in the document to show how the sensors and
network work together as well as illustrate the expected outcomes of when a space is
occupied or not.
• Venkanna U. et al. “A Wireless Sensor Node Based Efficient Parking Slot Availability
Detection System For Smart Cities.” IEEE Xplore Digital Library, 2018, EBSCO
Industries, Inc.,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8443892?arnumber=8443892&SID=EBSCO:edsee.
•
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This document utilizes a combination of Ultrasonic Sensor and Wi-Fi technology to
detect the movement of vehicles at the entry and exit of parking garages. Where this
advancement can be helpful to keep count of vehicles that enter and exit to get accurate
information on parking slot availability. This real-time information on parking slot
availability can be provided through a mobile application immediately per driver’s
request.
Rashid, Amr E. “A Fast Algorithm for License Plate Detection.” IEEE Xplore Digital
Library, 2018, EBSCO Industries, Inc., https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6497956.
License Plate Detection technology is one of the most important types of intelligent
transport system due to its vast uses in highway electronic toll collection, traffic
monitoring systems and so on. This technology can be beneficial in keeping track of cars
that have paid permits and non-paid permits that enter and exit out of the garage. The
technology presented in this document can reduce the cost of buying high quality
hardware to detect a license plate, instead introduces an algorithm to detect license plates
at a lower cost.
Jin Lee, Taeg et al. “Parking Status SNS (Social Network Service) Notification System.”
IEEE Xplore Digital Library, 2018, EBSCO Industries, Inc.,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6578245.
This document introduces a system in which can help drivers be aware of the parking
status of a parking garage. Not only does this notification system check the status of
parking, but also benefits by reducing the time drivers need to find spots and save
expense on gas.
6 Other Sources:
• Sweet, Nathaniel. “Another Parking Garage Is Not the Answer .” The Oracle, College
Media Network, 8 Sept. 2019, http://www.usforacle.com/2019/09/08/another-parkinggarage-is-not-the-answer/.
While building another parking garage is a popular and reasonable solution to USF’s
parking problem, it doesn’t effectively address the issue and there are not many places to
build without creating more congested traffic. Since most student housing is within 2
miles from campus, a better alternative would be to use a different kind of transportation
such as biking, walking, or mass transit. Hillsborough County voters approved a 1-cent
sales tax to improve transportation last November. This will include better sidewalks,
new bike lanes, and expanded bus service.
• Stokes, Jesse. “New Parking Lot Being Added as Part of an Ongoing Project near The
Village.” The Oracle, College Media Network, 14 Apr. 2019,
http://www.usforacle.com/2019/04/14/new-parking-lot-being-added-as-part-of-anongoing-project-near-the-village/.
An additional 300-space parking lot designated for students with “R” permits is being
built near The Village along with another entrance to campus from Fletcher Ave. More
than 13 acres will be used for this project and roughly $6 million have been approved by
the Board of Trustees as an initial budget. Alex Kahn, a senior majoring in
communication, doesn’t believe that an additional lot will be enough to improve
congestion and parking troubles, and thought that a garage would have been more
beneficial.
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“An Informed Approach to Campus Management.” Park Assist,
https://www.parkassist.com/who-we-serve/universities/.
The camera based Park Assist smart sensor-system is cost effective, helps keep traffic
flowing, addresses the needs of event management, and increases security better than a
traditional surveillance system. Advanced wayfinding signage and bright signaling LEDs
assist the smart-sensor cameras in showing open parking spaces. The Park Finder
software extension with the integrated License Plate Recognition technology helps
drivers find the place that they parked when returning to their vehicle. The Park Alerts
extension allows vehicle-specific citations to be issued online.
“2015-2025 USF System Campus Master Plan Updates.” Appendix B Data Collection
and Analysis, 2015, https://www.usf.edu/administrativeservices/facilities/documents/planning/master-plan-appx-b.pdf.
The USF Campus Master Plan Appendix B includes a large collection of data and
analysis for multiple areas such as land use, transportation, infrastructure, and future
building projects. The transportation section in element 5 shows tables and graphs of
information about the distances most students travel to get to campus, the capacity of
parking areas at certain times of day, the percentage of students who drive vs. the
percentage that carpool, and the transit stop locations. Large percentages in capacity for
certain parking areas further supports the need for a solution to the problem with parking.
D. Zheng, X. Zhang, Y. Shu, C. Fang, P. Cheng and J. Chen, “iParking: An intelligent
parking system for large parking lots,” 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer
Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), Hong Kong, 2015, pp. 37-38.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7179331
This document explains the benefits for having a parking management system for large
parking lots. It is generally difficult for drivers to know ahead of time if there will be
spots available, so having an intelligent parking monitor can reduce time to find vacant
parking spots.
Zhu, Dingju1, zhudingju@m.scnu.edu. c. “Deep Learning over IoT Big Data-Based
Ubiquitous Parking Guidance Robot for Parking near Destination Especially Hospital.”
Personal & Ubiquitous Computing, vol. 22, no. 5/6, Oct. 2018, pp. 1109–1116
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=74cd10035964-4bea-8ddd-577f829bf195%40pdc-vsessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=132461035&db=aci
The time students spend trying to find a parking spot near their designated class, can be
overly time consuming or just never seem to find a place to park. With the help of robotic
guidance, the required time to find a parking space and cost of gas consumption can be
reduced. Having a guide that can recommend a parking lot based on conditions of
forecast can easily save time when students are hurrying to class.
Explanation of what additional research will be needed
Some additional research will be needed to be conducted in the future to further support our
topic. A form of primary research will be beneficial as it will give us direct access to the subject
of our research. It will also help give us a different perspective on the subject and allow us to
improve our plan.
A plan for conducting primary research
For conducting primary research, we’ve chosen to do a survey with the USF student body. When
doing a survey, it is important to us that we can engage with individuals who are impacted by our
subject because that can provide valuable information on people’s opinions and behaviors to
allow us to make important decisions. Keeping the surveys short and simple will be the best way
to reach out to students, especially for those students that are going in between classes.