UCI Design-a-thon 2026 · Lost & Found

The things we lose onlineare rarely files.They are meanings.

Constellation helps people recover forgotten ideas, moments, and relationships from scattered digital fragments before they disappear into the background noise of daily life.

Capture fragments

Screenshots, voice thoughts, links, reminders, and half-finished notes.

Restore context

Cluster scattered saves into themes that feel emotionally legible.

Find what matters

Resurface the right fragment at a moment when it can still matter.

Fragments drifting tonightLost & Found, reimagined

Reminder to text Maya back

Saved after a conversation that felt important.

Voice note: startup idea

A thought recorded before it could disappear.

Civic internship link

A saved direction that still feels like meaning.

Quote from a hard week

A signal you left for yourself when things felt loud.

Found again

Constellation

Scattered fragments become a pattern you can act on.

What gets lost

Not the file. The context.

A saved fragment becomes effectively lost when the reason for saving it vanishes. That is why storage tools alone are not enough. The human problem is contextual amnesia.

Constellation treats screenshots, notes, links, voice snippets, and unfinished plans as drifting fragments of a larger personal story. The goal is to rebuild that story before the fragment becomes meaningless.

Unfinished Futures

Fragments that keep pointing toward work with more meaning.

3 linked fragments

People To Return To

Relationship fragments that mattered quietly, then drifted.

2 linked fragments

Small Life Orbits

Fragments about ordinary rituals that make life feel inhabited again.

2 linked fragments

Quiet Signals

Fragments that hint at burnout, longing, and the need to reassemble meaning.

3 linked fragments

How it works

1. Gather fragments

Capture a note, screenshot, link, voice thought, memory prompt, or person-based reminder with almost no friction.

How it works

2. Let patterns emerge

AI grouping turns isolated saves into emotionally readable constellations like Unfinished Futures or People To Return To.

How it works

3. Recover what matters

The rediscovery feed explains why something resurfaced and helps the user act, reconnect, archive, or let it go.

AI with restraint

Assistive, not invasive.

  • Clusters fragments when grouping creates real rediscovery value.
  • Uses language like “might relate to” and “seems connected to”.
  • Never invents memories or pretends to know more than the saved data suggests.
  • Supports reflection and reconnection without pushing the user into performative productivity.

For judges

Designed to land in 30 seconds.

The product story is visible from the first screen, the interaction model is distinctive, and the repository contains the research, process, prototype, and talk track needed for a strong designathon submission.