Local High School Student Develops Parking App For Grand Rapids

A local high school student got an idea while trying to find a parking spot for Griffin's game, that idea may be the new app you download to find parking in Grand Rapids.

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Technology is amazing these days and what is even more amazing is how young students find ways to use that technology.

Most kids in high school are thinking about socializing and what they plan to do when they get out of school. There is a Grand Rapids student that has developed an app called Spotter to help you locate available parking spaces in the city.

The young app developer's name is Vishnu Mano who took a year-long school project to develop his own app that could help you locate empty parking spots around Grand Rapids.

Even Mano's own teachers thought this was a pretty ambitious project and advised him to try something a little easier. Mano chose the most difficult path but a path that may pay him some big dividends before graduating high school.

FOX 17 reported, "I've been programming since fourth grade and I've always had an interest in programming, embedded systems, or microcontrollers so I've been messing around with this stuff for a long time."

You got to hand it to Mano for taking on such an aggressive project and doing so from scratch, very impressive.

After a year's hard work, Mano managed to put together a prototype that was built on top of an iPhone box. The app would show if a spot was taken with a red color or if the spot was open with a green color.

Mano pitched is his Spotter idea to Mobile GR and they actually took him on as an intern to work more on the app through the summer.

Now that the app is fully functional, Mano is looking to make deals with Ellis parking, the airport, and other parking facilities around Grand Rapids.

If you own a parking garage or would like your business to be a part of the Spotter app, click here to contact Mano directly at spotter.customer@gmail.com. You can learn more about his product here.