Problem Statement:

Students often misplace personal belongings such as ID cards, water bottles, USB drives, and notebooks across campus. Your task is to design and develop a web-based Lost & Found Portal that enables students and staff to report lost items, view found items, and connect securely to claim belongings.

Use Case:

The Lost & Found Portal will be used by students, faculty, and staff across the UMT campus to log, search, and recover misplaced or found items. Users can post details and images of lost or found items and submit or manage claim requests securely. The system ensures transparency, accountability, and traceability in the lost-and-found process, improving item recovery rates across campus.

User Story:

As a student, I want to report a lost item by providing a description and image, so that others on campus can help me recover it.

As a student who found an item, I want to post it quickly with its photo and found location, so that the rightful owner can claim it.

As a student, I want to browse and filter items posted on the platform, so I can easily find or verify my lost item.

As an admin, I want to monitor submissions and approve or resolve disputes, so that the platform remains trustworthy and secure for all users.

Core Requirements:

• User Authentication: Login/Signup using university email.
• Post Lost Item: Form with item name, category, date lost, description, location, contact info, image upload.
• Post Found Item: Form with item name, category, image, location found, description.
• Item Listing Pages: Separate views for Lost Items and Found Items, with filters by category, location, and date.
• Claim Request: Users can request to claim a found item; notifications sent to finder.
• Dashboard: Student dashboard (My Posts, My Requests), Admin dashboard (Approve/archive posts).
• Notification System: Real-time notifications for item matches or updates.
• Real-Time Chat: Secure communication between finder and claimer.
• Responsive Design: Clean UI for both mobile and desktop.

Bonus / Advanced Features:

• Image Similarity AI: Uploading a lost item image recommends visually similar found items.

• Innovation & Usability (25%)
  
• Technical Functionality (25%)
  
• UI/UX Design (20%)
  
• Problem Relevance (15%)
  
• Demo & Presentation (15%)