Parking is painful in the United States, as per the available estimates of time and money that motorists spend every year. The daily hunt for parking space incurs an additional cost, i.e. estimated USD 345 per driver in some parts of the country. Drivers spend 17 hours a year on an average looking for parking space at public places, on streets and in garages, according to INRIX, a leading specialist in transportation analytics. To say in brief, parking woes in the US cost Americans over $20 billion a year.

An Indian graduate at the University of Alabama in Huntsville seems to put an end to parking problems in US cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC. Sai Nikhil Reddy Mettupally created a space-detecting algorithm using airborne censors to mitigate parking woes of Americans. He finished up second in the Science and Technology Open House competition 2018 for his innovation.

A student of Huntsville’s Alabama University, Sai Nikhil Reddy Mettupally has made the most of Big Data analytics and deep-learning techniques in his space-detecting algorithm to help drivers find empty spots for vehicle parking. Nikhil pursuing masters in the Computer Science Department hit upon the idea of developing the algorithm for motorists grappling with parking problems in the US after the University of Alabama transitioned to a parking zone last fall.

The incidence of parking space shortage in the university premises is high between 11 AM and 1 PM on a typical day. Evidently, finding parking space is a great difficulty for faculty members, students and non-teaching staffs. In order to curb the mounting wastage of time and fuel, Nikhil Reddy found it a pressing need of the hour to create a solution to parking problems in US cities.

A bachelor in electronics and communications engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India, Sai Nikhil Reddy Mettupally turned to Dr. Vineetha Menon, an assistant professor in the department of computer science for the latter’s guidance and mentorship in transforming his idea into a real solution. Being the director of Big Data Analytics Lab at the university, Dr. Menon was able to help Nikhil with high-tech computing power that was needed to create the empty space-detecting algorithm.

Unlike the existing parking apps, Sai Nikhil Reddy Mettupally’s innovation for Americans grappling with parking problems does require neither purchase nor installation of expensive in-ground sensors. Reportedly, the new space-detecting algorithm will be relying on a convolutional neural network to analyze pictorial data (imagery) that video surveillance cameras will collect and transmit to help check whether a given parking lot is full or empty.

In New York alone, most drivers have reported spending 107 hours a year hunting for parking space. It incurs a whopping $4.3 billion as cost of wasted time and fuel to New Yorkers.

Of the respondents to a survey conducted in and around 10 major US metropolitan areas, 42% said that they missed appointments due to parking problems, 34% said that they skipped weekend outings owing to parking issues, and 23% reported experiencing road rage because of the same reason. In addition, 63% of the 6000 drivers who were surveyed don’t prefer driving to major airports, popular shopping centers and crowded leisure sites due to maddening searchers for parking space.

Alabama-based Sai Nikhil Reddy Mettupally is currently busy troubleshooting the few initial issues in a bid to perfect the algorithm. He also seeks to create a parking-support mobile app which will use the GPS feature of mobile phones to provide real-time data of occupied and empty parking lots. It will not only help find space in the closest parking zone, but also manage the vehicular traffic flow and improve parking management.

This story is part of our continued series of inspiring stories about young Indians in USA, at Travel Beats, an Indian American community portal by Indian Eagle Travel. Indian Eagle is a leading air travel booking partner of Indians in USA. Subscribe to our free newsletter for latest community stories, US visa & immigration news, and US-India travel updates.   

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Airlines reported 21.6 million mishandled, misplaced and lost bags in 2016, according to SITA, a leading airline information technology company. Around 6 check-in bags per 1000 travelers were lost or misplaced in 2017, according to SITA’s annual report on airline luggage handling in the same year. Though airlines are technologically getting smarter about handling of checked bags, luggage loss or misplacement is still a prevalent nightmare for many air travelers.

Checked bags are returned to their rightful owners within 48 hours in 85 percent cases of luggage loss or misplacement. Only 7% of the found luggage, which airports store for 90 days awaiting the owners to turn up and collect their belongings, remains unclaimed.

Do you know what happens to unclaimed luggage? Do you ever wonder where lost or stolen bags end up? Are you eager to know what airlines do if they fail to determine or contact the owner of unclaimed check-in bags?

The articles which remain orphaned for 90 days at US airports’ lost and found baggage counters are disposed of at Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. Unlike worldwide auction houses for lost checked luggage, Unclaimed Baggage Center (UBC) in Alabama is a 40,000-square-foot store for retail shopping of secondhand goods. Founded in 1970, it is the ultimate destination for budget shoppers and bargain hunters on the lookout for secondhand, refurbished things at lower prices than the market value.

Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Albama inks agreements with major US airlines to source lost, unclaimed checked bags. With one million customers annually from 40 countries, the UBC is one of the prime tourist destinations in Alabama, USA. The merchandise of various articles from diamond rings to electronic devices to clothes to ski boots found in unclaimed luggage is handled by 140 employees at the store.

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One of the most interesting things about Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL is that a customer is let to unpack a bag (from new arrivals) and reveal the content inside at 2.30 PM every day. A board reading “7,000 new items daily”, outside the 40,000-square-foot retail shopping facility hints at the thriving business here. Such is the popularity of Unclaimed Baggage Center is that a commercial pilot from Qatar does often visit the store with his wife.

Scottsboro’s Unclaimed Baggage Center also houses a museum which exhibits some of the bizarre items like 50 vacuum-packed frogs and Egyptian artifacts including a shrunken head from 1500 BC, which have been uncovered from flyers’ unclaimed luggage.

Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro Alabama has a dedicated section for electronic devices from checked bags lost or misplaced or stolen or left unclaimed at US airports. Bargain hunters frequent this place to buy digital cameras, iPads, laptops and tablets. The store makes sure to delete user date from electronics items before putting them on sale. Hundreds of customers queue up overnights to grab skiing gear and garb at cheaper rates the moment the store throws open the door in the morning.

Giving a tough competition to similar businesses and retail stores in adjacent neighborhoods, Alabama’s Unclaimed Baggage Center dishes out irresistible rates on clothes of all sorts, including designer outfits from air travelers’ lost bags. Don’t underestimate the store for selling used clothes. All of the clothes are meticulously cleaned and laundered at the in-house facility before being put on a display on the sales floor. Around 50,000 pieces of clothing are laundered here every month.

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Some of the best and costliest finds from lost checked bags at Unclaimed Baggage Center, Alabama are a 5.8-carat diamond ring, a 40.95-carat emerald, a designer Versace gown, a full suit of armor, a $18,000 Limoges vase which the center sold for a meager 80 dollars, a fighter jet missile guidance system which the center returned to the Air Force, and a space shuttle camera which was handed over to NASA.

At times, some of those whose lost or stolen checked luggage ends up at Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama, happen to shop for their own things at economical prices. In 1998, a man bought a pair of ski boots for his wife at this thrift store. Later on, he found that the boots were his wife’s when he discovered her name written inside them.

Unclaimed Baggage Center Scottsboro, Alabama not only makes profits but also donates the items which hardly sell. It donates eyeglasses for Lions Clubs International’s Sight First program, wheelchairs to locally-run charities and unsold clothes to the needy. It disburses medical supplies to charities in developing countries. Suitcases are converted into luv luggage and given to children in foster homes and the homeless in Alabama.

Apart from shopping for lost luggage items at Unclaimed Baggage Center, which is as exciting as a treasure hunt, you can spend sometime over a Starbucks coffee at the in-house cafe. There are several attractions to see around the store in Scottsboro, Alabama.

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Seven Indian American students stood out with flying colors in the 2016 National Geographic Bee competition. Rishi Nair from the state of Florida won the competition this year. He is followed by two other Indian American boys, Saketh Jonnalagadda and Kapil Nathan, who stood second and third respectively.

Rishi Nair is a sixth-grader at William Lincoln Magnet School in Plant City, Florida. The runner-up Saketh Jonnalagadda is an 8^th grader at Stony Brook Middle School in Westford, Massachusetts. The second runner-up Kapil Nathan is a 6^th grader from Hoover in the state of Alabama.

12-year-old Rishi Nair, who got six of the seven answers right in the 2016 National Geographic Bee Grand Finale in Washington DC, received a $50,000 college scholarship and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. He will also get an 8-day adventure trip to Southeast Alaska with a stopover at Glacier Bay National Park. The National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions will jointly bear all expenses for the trip.

12-year-old Rishi Nair from Florida is the 2016 National Geographic Bee Winner

14-year-old Saketh Jonnalagadda from Massachusetts, the first runner-up, bagged a $25,000 college scholarship, while a $10,000 college scholarship was awarded to 12-year-old Kapil Nathan from Alabama, the second runner-up. Saketh Jonnalagadda got five answers right, whereas Kapil got four answers right.

The seven other finalists in the 2016 National Geographic Bee include four Indian Americans: Rishi Kumar, a 10-year-old 5^th grader from Maryland; Pranay Varada, a 13-year-old 7^th grader from Irvin in Texas; Samanyu Dixit, a 12-year-old 6^th grader from North Carolina, and Ashwin Shivakumar, an 11-year-old 6^th grader from Oregon. Each of them received $500.

Rishi Nair credited his National Geographic Bee championship to his mother. Rishi is the second Florida resident to have become the national champion. In 2010, 8^th grader Aadith Moorthy of Palm Harbor was the Florida student to have won the National Geographic Bee.

Almost 3 million students from 11,000 schools across the US took part in the 2016 National Geographic Bee competition. The final round which was held today in Washington DC will be aired on the National Geographic Channel and Nat GEO WILD on Friday, May 27.

Also Read 9-year-old Indian American Wins Mighty Minds Contest

Travel Beats is a digital news portal for Indians and NRIs by IndianEagle, a leading international organization booking travel from the US to India. It publishes the latest news and stories from India and USA.

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Indian American entrepreneurs are on a roll whether it is PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi who hit headlines as biggest alumni donor for Yale School of Management or it is India-born businessman Hanu Karlapalem in the race for the hot seat of Madison City’s mayor in Alabama.

Born in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, tech entrepreneur Hanu Karlapalem is contesting for the post of mayor of Madison City in Alabama, the United States. He is the founder and CEO of Vinhamz, a business network solutions, in the city.

51-year old India-born businessman is planning to announce his candidature for the election of mayor of Madison City at an upcoming event. He is confident that he would prove to be a visionary as mayor of Madison City.

He says that Madison lags behind top cities in the US by 15 to 20 years though it is one of the fast-growing cities in the state of Alabama in south. He believes that he is the right candidate with a vision and mission to drive the growth of Madison City in all fields so that it can compete with major cities in the United States.

“There is no other Indian American as capable as I in the entire state of Alabama. If I win in the election for the mayor of Madison City, it would be a historic event,” says Indian American tech entrepreneur Vanu Karlapalem from India.

“Madison is one of the most educated cities yet it is not among the top 10 in the United States,” adds Mr. Karlapalem while commenting on the sorry status of Madison City where building better roads, increasing employment opportunities and improving internal communication are the needs of the hour.

“Today I stand in the election for mayor of Madison in Alabama because of the city’s diverse culture and tolerant community. Madison is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the US,” says Mr. Karlapalem cheerfully.

Indian American entrepreneur Hanu Karlapalem has served as a board member of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has also been a member of the International Services Council of Alabama. Moreover, he used to be the president of the local Indian association for Madison and Huntsville.

Since he has been on the board of several institutions, he comes with a lot of leadership and decision-making experience for the development of Madison City in Alabama. He says that he will better be collaborating and communicating with the city council in various campaigns as well as projects to “promote a culture of development and diplomacy”.

Mr. Karlapalem has already shared a few ideas such as an incubator for small businesses, a board for supporting veterans, a citizen advisory council and a youth council to work with city leaders for the future betterment of Madison City.

Tech entrepreneur Hanu Karlapalem shifted to Alabama in the US when his spouse took a software development job in Huntsville 16 years back. After he relocated in Alabama, he pursued a master degree in information systems management at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Madison was the site of a battle during the American Civil War in 1864. Today it is a thriving suburb of Huntsville and a short drive from Huntsville International Airport. Intergraph, a conglomerate in software development, is Madison’s largest employer. – IndianEagle

Read More Interesting News about NRIs in the United States

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