Like many students, 15-year-old Neil Kumar used to misplace water bottles and jackets at school or the gym — small inconveniences that add up to a massive problem nationwide. Each year, millions of forgotten items pile up in lost-and-found boxes or end up in landfills. Now, the Bellevue High School freshman has come up with a high-tech solution: FindIt, an app that uses artificial intelligence to help people reunite with their lost belongings.

Kumar’s idea recently earned him a spot among just four innovators chosen for Bellevue’s Civic Innovation Challenge, a program seeking new tech solutions for city challenges. As part of the initiative, FindIt will be piloted at Bellevue College, where students, staff, and visitors will test the app’s usability and accuracy before potential wider deployment.

“I’ve always been interested in how technology can solve real-world problems,” Kumar told GeekWire.
And the problem he’s tackling is a big one: according to Lostings.com, Americans lose more than 400 million items every year, worth an estimated $5 billion. For Kumar, the goal is both economic and environmental — reflected in FindIt’s tagline: “Buy less, lose even less.”

Here’s how it works: when a lost item is found, someone—such as a school staff member—takes a photo and uploads it to the app. The AI then analyzes the image and automatically generates a detailed description, like “blue water bottle with red sticker and white top.”
Anyone searching for their item can type in a description, and the app’s AI scans the uploaded listings to find the best matches—no need to physically visit the lost-and-found box.

Kumar started developing FindIt about a year ago. Among 23 applicants to the Civic Innovation Challenge, his app stood out for its simplicity and social impact. Other selected participants include:

Certivo, a Seattle startup offering AI-driven vendor compliance visibility.
Legislaide, a Denver-based company using AI to analyze and search municipal codes.
Juganu, an Israeli firm creating smart lighting systems for safer, data-informed public spaces.

Beyond Bellevue College, FindIt is already in use at Odle Middle School, and Kumar hopes to expand it to other schools, airports, workplaces, and public transit systems.

His innovation also earned him a spot among the top 300 Junior Innovators in the U.S., as part of the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge.

Having worked with Sustainability Ambassadors, a program that helps students become environmental leaders, Kumar says FindIt is just the beginning.
“I like to solve problems using technology,” he said. “And I want to keep building tools that help people in real life.”

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