UNU Jogja Informatics Students Develop Cari.In, a Mobile Lost-and-Found Application for Campus Communities

Yogyakarta, Indonesia – Students from the Informatics Study Program, Faculty of Information Technology, Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Yogyakarta (UNU Jogja), have developed Cari.In, a mobile-based lost-and-found application designed to help members of the university community report, search for, and recover lost items on campus. The application was developed as an outcome of the Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) course, where students applied software development principles to address real user needs.

Cari.In was created by a team consisting of Irham Zubaidi Alhuda, Galih Witradika, Faiz Abdurrachman, Ibnul Mubarok, Imroatu Zakiyah, and Aldo Yulian Widyadewangga. The idea emerged from a common issue experienced by campus members: the difficulty of recovering lost belongings because reports were typically shared only through word of mouth or WhatsApp groups.

A survey conducted by the development team among Informatics Class of 2024, Class A, revealed that 68 percent of respondents had experienced losing personal belongings on campus. The findings highlighted the need for a more organized system that enables faster, well-documented, and easily accessible reporting and retrieval of lost items.

Through Cari.In, all reports of lost and found items are managed within a centralized digital platform. The system replaces fragmented reporting methods by providing a single, searchable database that allows users to access information more efficiently.

The application offers several key features, including digital lost-item reporting, item searches using category and keyword filters, a private in-app chat that enables communication between the owner and the finder without exchanging personal phone numbers, an administrator dashboard for report verification, and real-time notifications when a matching item is found.

Cari.In supports three types of users: students, lecturers and administrative staff, and system administrators. Students and staff can report lost items, browse found-item listings, and communicate through the platform, while administrators are responsible for verifying ownership claims, managing reports, and closing completed cases.

To ensure accessibility and ease of use, the application was built using React Native with TypeScript, supported by Supabase, PostgreSQL, and Expo Go. The mobile platform was chosen because smartphones are widely used across the university community, allowing users to report lost items, upload photos, and receive notifications anytime and anywhere.

Beyond producing a functional application, the project also served as a practical implementation of the four core principles of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)—inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism, and abstraction. Applying these concepts resulted in a modular, scalable, and maintainable software architecture aligned with modern software development practices.

The development of Cari.In reflects the project-based learning approach implemented in UNU Jogja's Informatics Study Program. Through this approach, students are encouraged not only to master programming theories but also to create digital solutions that address real-world challenges.

As a university in Yogyakarta committed to fostering digital innovation and technology-based solutions for society, UNU Jogja continues to equip its students with both strong technical competencies and problem-solving skills. The Cari.In application is expected to become a practical solution for strengthening a culture of mutual care, accelerating the recovery of lost belongings, and improving campus services. [Latifah]