| Biographies |
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| Daniel - I am a fifth year student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute. Both at school and in the community, I enjoy being very involved in extra-curricular activities. Some of my involvements include Student Council, leading school assemblies, coordinating environmental activities, and singing in a guys’ acapella group. I also enjoy playing cello in my school’s orchestra and singing in a choir. My athletic activities include being part of the football and ultimate frisbee teams. As well as my extra-curricular activities, I focus diligently on my studies. Next year I will be attending the University of Waterloo, likely for Systems Design Engineering. The idea of my science project came to me while driving around one day in an unfamiliar area. I realized that although I knew where my destination was, I did not know where parking was available. Upon further research, I learned that there is no online resource which provides drivers with a map of possible locations to park. After talking about this, my friend Aaron and I decided to take on this challenge as a science fair project. The opportunity to learn more about this field of knowledge through this project has been tremendously enjoyable and rewarding. | | Aaron - My name is Aaron Buckley and I am a graduating student at Waterloo Collegiate Insitute in Waterloo, Ontario. I will be attending University of Waterloo next year for the Knowledge Integration program, where I will pursue my dream career of crisis mapping, a field of geography that uses mathematical modelling and mapping to plan responses to natural and political disasters like earthquakes and genocides. The inspiration for my project, cutting 9000 tonnes of parking-related carbon dioxide emissions/year by modelling parking trends in metropolitan areas with 92% accuracy and creating a mapping application that can reroute drivers to emptier parking lots, came from an article in National Geographic magazine. The article praised San Francisco for cutting carbon emissions by implementing demand responsive parking prices that better distributed parking in congested areas, cutting down on the time people spend driving. The article inspired me to build on San Francisco's green parking initiatives by creating a better system for redistributing parking in congested areas. The future of the project is adapting it to suit non-metropolitan areas, expanding the amount of parking-related emissions it can cut. I recommend that all young scientists find an issue they're passionate about and pursue it endlessly. |
| Daniel Penner, Aaron Buckley
The Spots in the Lots
| Challenge: | Environment | | Category: | Senior | | Region: | Waterloo-Wellington | | City: | Waterloo, ON | | School: | Waterloo Collegiate Institute | | Abstract: | Increasing parking demands cause thousands of litres of gasoline to be burned by drivers trying to find a parking spot. We created a model predicting the hourly occupancy of parking lots, based on their surrounding features. By forecasting parking trends, drivers can be routed to the nearest parking lot that is likely to have available spots; thus greatly reducing wasted time and emissions. |
| Awards | Value | Excellence Award - Senior
Silver Medal
Sponsor: Youth Science Canada | $300.00 | Dalhousie University Faculty of Science Entrance Scholarship
Senior Silver Medallist - $2500 Entrance Scholarship
Sponsor: Dalhousie University, Faculty of Science | $2 500.00 | UBC Science (Vancouver) Entrance Award
Senior Silver Medallist - $2000 Entrance Scholarship
Sponsor: The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) | $2 000.00 | University of Ottawa Entrance Scholarship
Senior Silver Medallist - $2000 Entrance Scholarship
Sponsor: University of Ottawa | $2 000.00 | Western University Scholarship
Silver Medallist - $2000 Entrance Scholarship
Sponsor: Western University | $2 000.00 | | Total | $8 800.00 | |
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