Hurricane’s Aftermath Inspires Students’ Effort to Link Donors With Survivors

Two UC Berkeley graduate students are developing a nonprofit online system that aims to make it easier for people to give and receive aid.

The system, known as iCare, is being developed by Anand Kulkarni and Ephrat Bitton, both graduate students in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, as a way to distribute relief more efficiently by matching up donors with those in need of aid.

Bitton said in an e-mail that she hopes to launch the program by fall.

The service distinguishes itself from other exchange services like Craigslist or The American Red Cross by keeping information organized and handling only physical goods rather than money, Bitton said.

“We believe individuals are more willing to donate items they may have lying around the house as opposed to cash,” Bitton said. “Furthermore, we reduce the potential for fraud because (of the) nature of the goods requested by survivors.”

The team said it plans to distribute all of the donations given.

“We don’t waste resources because every item shipped has been requested by someone who needs it,” Bitton said.

The developing team said it was inspired to create the system after observing the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the problems in bringing relief to the survivors.

“Anand and I came up with the idea after watching the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina unfold. Relief efforts were highly uncoordinated, and as a result survivors did not receive adequate aid,” Bitton said.

Bitton and Kulkarni said they both used experience from studying at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in creating iCare.

“Industrial engineering and operations research are about increasing efficiency and optimizing and modeling real-world systems, including distribution systems,” Kulkarni said in an e-mail. “Managing supply chains and improving the distribution of goods and services are central problems in (industrial engineering and operations research,) so iCare certainly falls within scope of what (it) can do,” Kulkarni said in an e-mail.

UC Berkeley faculty were not directly involved with the iCare project, but the team did receive two grants.

One grant was given as an award from UC Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and the other was given by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, Big Ideas@Berkeley and Bears Breaking Boundaries.

“This is a research project started by the two of us, but at the same time, iCare had received money from campus sources and is hosted online by the (industrial engineering and operations research) department. It’s affiliated with UC Berkeley through us as (doctorate) students, but there’s not any significant faculty involvement,” Kulkarni said.

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