Pressure is rising in the small, sparsely furnished office in Hamburg Hall. Four Carnegie Mellon graduate students have been working around the clock for two days, and the midnight deadline is just minutes away. Tanaji Naik tells Abhinav Raj to hand over the spreadsheets he's been feverishly perfecting. Naik adds them to the business plan, checks the clock—11:40 PM—and asks Raja Balakrishnan and Deepti Madan for final comments. The minutes are passing. Naik hurriedly adds the finishing touches—11:49 PM now—and, filled with relief, clicks send.
The group has, in the nick of time, entered the Heinz School's Social Innovation Business Plan competition. Their two-day crunch has been punctuated by excitement, laughter, and a quick run to the University Center's Friday night party for drinks. At times, tempers have run short, held in check at 3 AM by Raj's impromptu guitar solos. As Balakrishnan teases, "OK, we'll go to work now, just don't play!"
Surprisingly, these students aren't sacrificing their free time and sleep for a grade. They share a commitment to social action and have entered this contest only to bring public attention to their ideas. They are friends first and have spent many mealtime hours discussing ways to make a difference in the world. They clash over differing strengths, philosophies, and work styles, but they all agree on the need to contribute. This project is more than a plan—it's a calling.
During one of their dinners, Balakrishnan had mentioned the competition, and Naik had hit on the main idea: solving the terrible e-waste problem occurring in many under-developed countries. E-waste is discarded electronic equipment, everything from computers to cell phones. It contains toxic materials, like lead, cadmium, and mercury, and is currently being dumped illegally in countries like the group's native India. The venture they've conceived, ePanacea, is a Web-based company that could profitably aggregate incoming e-waste and funnel it through legal, ethical recycling channels.
A few weeks after their midnight entry, Raj spots Naik entering the lounge and greets him with a deadpan, "Oh, we won." Raj smiles as Naik literally jumps with excitement, and they contact the others.
—MELISSA SILMORE (TPR'85)
