The story of Roman on how to get into the developers of social projects team from a student’s desk, create a parking service in six months, present it to the city and change the occupation from construction to IT.
Who are you by profession and what influenced your choice of future profession?
During school years, I was engaged in sports and attended a folk dance club. We traveled a lot with the team, participated in various competitions and festivals. Once fate led me to Zaporizhzhia, where the organizers of the event decided to give us an excursion to the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Station. We were shown the construction, the engine room, the dam – you look at tens of meters above your head, wondering how much water this structure holds back, what power it has and catch yourself thinking that you have never seen such a thing in your life! To say that I was impressed is to say nothing. After that, I decided to enter the university and chose the department of Automated design in hydraulic engineering construction of NUWM.
How did you end up in RenomeLab and how was your first acquaintance with the program?
The answer is the interest in new things. And if someone again offered me to participate in a similar program or work together on a product, I would agree without hesitation.
In the 3rd year, I received a letter from the organizers with an offer to take part in the RenomeLab program. The selection process took place in three stages: we were asked to fill out a form, complete a small task, and pass an interview. I don’t know how many students left an application, but seven passed. However, one participant was forced to leave the program because of work. Therefore, in fact, there were four guys and two girls in the team – all 2-4-year students.
Soon we got a call and were invited to the first meeting in Prostir interaction platform. Then we got acquainted with each other, with Nadiia Holiaka, one of the organizers and supportes, as well as Olena Bilyk, Dmytro Kukhar, Anton Shynkaruk. Also, each of the participants was assigned a specific role in the project: developer, marketer, team leader, business analyst, tester and manager. In the end, we got the first task – to collect ideas for our own social project.
What areas did you consider?
They offered different things: tourist applications, transport solutions, and projects for the municipal sector. There was an idea even with the use of augmented reality. But the choice fell on the development of a system for organizing paid parking spaces in Rivne.
Why?
We really wanted to help the city solve the problem of chaotic parking. At the same time, no one sought to be an altruist. According to our plan, everyone should have won: people, the city, businesses, and developers.
What stages did the work on your project consist of?
First there was research. We were interested in the experience of other Ukrainian and foreign cities, disadvantages, advantages, implementation features, accessibility, traffic and problem areas of the city, etc. All the information was collected in Excel, and when we met, we analyzed, discussed, and outlined the most useful point.
After that, we started planning a project and developing a business plan together with Vasyl Bryzh, an analyst at RENOME. We were taught how to do this correctly, what we should pay attention to, what costs we need to lay down, how to take into account risks, how long the project should pay off (ours, for example, should have paid off in 2 years, otherwise it is simply impractical to invest), how to save money, how to calculate the cost of development, and so on. The final part was a presentation for the municipal guard and representatives of the city administration.
At each stage, we were accompanied by RENOME SMART specialists who guided us in the right direction and answered numerous questions.
At each stage, we were accompanied by RENOME SMART specialists who guided us in the right direction and answered numerous questions.
The work lasted six months, what results have you gained?
We have developed a digital service for parking regulation, which we called “eParkovka”. This is a single ecosystem of roadside and closed parking lots, which would consist of a special system for fixing empty spaces, video surveillance with recognition of car license plates and the driver, and the facility to calculate via a mobile application or a parking meter.
According to our calculations, with the cost of a parking space of 15 UAH/hour, from a parking lot for 35 places, an additional 126,000 UAH could be received monthly to the budget of Rivne. In addition, the city will receive orderly parking, new jobs and a single transparent parking system. Subsequently, with the help of eParkovka, owners of closed parking lots could rent out their own slots and, at the same time, get access to a ready-made software solution that automates all processes. Drivers will have up-to-date information about available slots, driving directions to them, access to orderly, smart, safe parking, etc.
What experience have you got?
RenomeLab gave me a little more experience, but more on that later. First, I improved my soft skills – communication with others. Specifically for me, this has always been difficult. It’s not like I don’t have any friends at all. I’m just an introvert by nature. Secondly, new knowledge and skills. We not only learned how to create our own project from scratch, but also tried to do it ourselves. In the process, our best friends were also the Miro board, Figma, Excel, etc.
But most importantly, upon completion of the project, I was offered an internship at RENOME SMART in the support team. After successful completion of our project, I took the offer and now work there.