Computer Science Department News

There will be a M.S. Thesis Defense on April 6, 2011 at 4:00 PM by Vikas G. Ashok.

Title: A Probabilistic Analysis of Misparking in Reservation Based Parking Garages
Location: E&CS Building RM 3316
Student: Vikas G. Ashok
Advisor: Dr. Stephan Olariu

Abstract:
Parking in major cities is an expensive and annoying affair, the reason ascribed to the limited availability of parking space. Modern parking garages provide parking reservation facility, thereby ensuring availability to prospective customers. Misparking in such reservation based parking garages creates confusion and aggravates driver frustration. The general conception about misparking is that it tends to completely cripple the normal functioning of the system leading to chaos and confusion. A single mispark tends to have a ripple effect and therefore spawns a chain of misparks. The chain terminates when the last mispark occurs at the parking slot reserved by the first member of the misparking chain. Of interest is the probability distribution of the random variable that represents the length of the misparking chain. The most probable length of the chain as determined from the underlying probability distribution is therefore indicative of the extent of instability caused by a single mispark. In this thesis, reasonably tight bounds for the probability of occurance of a misparking chain of a given length are first determined. Next, the probability distribution of the length of misparking chain is approximated. It can be inferred from the mathematical derivations presented in this work that the most probable misparking chain length is very small compared to the size of the garage, thereby showing that a mispark has negligible effect on the stability of the parking system. Simulation results are also presented to validate the analytical solutions.