In recent months, students from Mostar University competed for the most innovative smart parking solution for the Mostar campus. As part of the Smart Campus Project, student teams were challenged to make the most innovative and useful smart parking solution in combination with a smartphone application. Nedap’s smart parking sensors SENSIT were chosen for this challenge to monitor, control, and provide real-time parking data about the occupancy of parking spaces. The sensors were implemented by Nedap’s business partner Ericsson Nikola Tesla at various parking bays at the Mostar campus. This research project will help to spur innovation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Smart Campus Project at Mostar University
The University of Mostar is the largest public university located in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has ten faculties and one Academy of Fine Arts, with 50 majors, 46 specializations, and 70 study groups. This makes it one of the most diverse universities in the country. Part of this university is the Smart Campus Project. The aim of this project is to create an inspiring environment for students to research and develop innovative and smart solutions that contribute to the innovative character of the campus.
Smart Parking Competition With Use of Nedap’s SENSIT
The first Smart Campus Project, driven by the University’s Information Technology Center SUMIT, consisted of a student competition about smart parking. Students were challenged to create the most innovative and smart parking solution for the Mostar campus, including the backend and smartphone application. Creativity, cleverness, and out-of-the-box thinking were important elements.
Students have chosen to use Nedap’s SENSIT in their solution, a parking bay occupancy detection platform that utilizes robust, accurate, and cost-effective IoT-based inground parking sensors. By using SENSIT, real-time information about when and for how long parking spaces are occupied becomes available. With this, parking solutions could be verified.
Expert in Smart Parking Sensor Technology
SENSIT was chosen because of its reliable platform for generating parking data and its advanced and innovative technology. The extensive knowledge and years of experience in many projects worldwide and beyond prove that Nedap is an expert in smart parking sensor technology.
Nedap’s business partner Ericsson Nikola Tesla provided the Smart Parking environment and implemented 62 smart parking sensors from Nedap at various locations on the Mostar campus. Ericsson Nikola Tesla is a solid partner of Nedap and together several projects have already been carried out in Europe. The communication service was provided by HT Eronet.
Importance of Parking Data for Smart Parking Solutions
After four weeks, the student teams presented their conceived parking solutions. The winning team used and recognized the value of parking data and presented a number of ideas to combine the parking data from Nedap’s SENSIT with other systems, such as LPR, cameras, and weather data. These parking solutions were further developed in collaboration with the students after the challenge. In the coming period, a new challenge will be organized for students in which the relevance of parking data and the combination with parking sensors will be central.
Positive Impulse for Future Projects
At this moment, the smart campus is the central place where the data from the implemented sensors remains available in order to make the results of the implementation visible to everyone. Nedap’s SENSIT sensors will continue to generate real-time data of the available parking spaces.
With this research project, Nedap and Ericsson Nikola Tesla have provided a positive impulse on the use of parking guidance with SENSIT technology. This has been made possible by the knowledge and skills that Nedap and Ericsson Nikola Tesla have accomplished in other projects in Europe. This research project will therefore contribute to the further stimulation of innovative and smart city initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We are pleased that Nedap’s SENSIT parking sensors were part of the Smart Campus project of Mostar University. It is great that students can work with innovative technologies, which contributes to both the development of the students and the innovative developments in Mostar. Ericsson Nikola Tesla is our loyal partner who implemented our parking sensors at Mostar Campus. Through our collaboration in many projects and the knowledge and experience gained, this research project will contribute to the further stimulation of innovations in smart parking and smart city projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” - Edwin Siemerink, Proposition Manager SENSIT at Nedap.
About Nedap Identification Systems 
Nedap is the leading specialist in systems for long-range identification, wireless vehicle detection, and city access control. Identifying people and their vehicles without delaying them. That is how we empower security, parking, and traffic management systems all over the world. Millions of professionals trust Nedap technology to support them. To access buildings. To drive into secured perimeters. or to find a parking bay. Combining cutting-edge technology with decades of experience. That is how we secure the flow of vehicles and people.
High-tech company Nedap N.V. creates high-quality, innovative hardware and software products that enable people to be more productive and successful in their professional lives. Nedap N.V. has a workforce of over 700 employees and operates on a global scale. The company was founded in 1929 and has been listed on Euronext Amsterdam since 1947. Its headquarters is located in Groenlo, the Netherlands.
