CLIF

Ever lost something on campus and sprinted between five different offices? Skip the scavenger hunt. With CLIF, you search once and see every item in every lost-and-found!

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Inspiration

Losing something on campus is stressful — you end up running from place to place, checking every lost and found desk, hoping someone has turned it in. Being off-campus makes it even worse, not knowing whether your item has been returned, stolen, or still sitting where you left it.

That’s where CLIF, the Campus Lost Item Finder, comes in - a tool designed to make recovering your lost belongings much less stressful.

What it does

CLIF enhances student life by making lost & found items discoverable across campus.

Key features:

  • Map View: Displays campus locations and where items were last found.
  • Item List & Filters: Browse and filter by name, location, or time.
  • Gallery View: Scroll a visual feed of all posted items.
  • Admin Tools: Authorized staff can log in, add/update items, and manage photos securely.

How we built it

  • Frontend: React (responsive UI with an interactive map + filterable sidebar), HTML/CSS/JS for admin panel and gallery view.
  • Backend: Supabase (Postgres, Auth, Storage)
  • Auth & Security: Supabase Authentication + Row-Level Security (RLS)
  • Styling: Lightweight CSS / utility classes for speed

Challenges we ran into

  • End-to-End Integration: Integration between react and the database was challenging, especially with RLS!
  • New Stack Learning Curve: For much of the team, this was the first hands-on React project!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Getting the product shipped: Learned the stack and shipped a working prototype quickly.
  • Supabase database Items, photos, locations, and desks fit into a simple, extendable schema. Photos are stored in buckets, each bucket's location stored in the database.
    • Secure workflows: Auth + RLS guardrails without compromising ease-of-use for staff.

What we learned

  • React fundamentals: Components, props/state, controlled inputs, and basic routing.
  • Importance of integrating early: In a <24 hour hackathon, leaving integration for the end is a trap — connecting frontend, backend, and auth from the start would have saved us from last-hour chaos!

What’s next for CLIF (Campus Lost Item Finder)

  • Add SFU Surrey map with full interactivity: Building/desk layers, searchable pins (FOUND locations, LOST locations), hover/selection states
  • Implement a public submission form: Simple flow to allow users to post lost items (name, category, photo, location).
  • Enable verified users to mark items as found:
  • Streamline the UI for speed and clarity: Port the admin panel and gallery to React to unify components, state, and routing—reducing duplication and enabling faster loads (lazy images, list virtualization, optimistic updates).
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