The results of a collective assignment given to the students of the ICTP-JNCASR School on Electronic Structure Methods and their Applications, held in July 2006 in Bangalore, have been published in Solid State Communications, v. 144, issues 7-8, November 2007, p. 273-276. The paper is co-authored by 67 among students and lecturers, from 12 different countries, and reports the results of a theoretical investigation of the stability of a new hypothetical compound—an alloy of silicon and carbon dioxide—with potentially important technological applications. The effort leading to the publication was coordinated by Shobana Narasimhan, a former Associate (1999-2006) and frequent visitor of ICTP.