PART A

Fatma settled down for lunch at the Yank Sing Chinese restaurant. She was early and took the time to catch up on her e$-$mail. Soon she would be joined by Jasper and Viktoria, two fellow $2014$ grads from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Jasper worked as a software engineer for a start$-$up company that wanted to expand the boundaries of sharing economy. Viktoria was an electrical engineer who worked for a German healthcare company in San Francisco. They had met each other at a Silicon Valley alumni reception hosted by Virginia Tech. Each of them felt a bit like a fish out of water on the West Coast, so they decided to have lunch together each month. The lunch evolved into a professional support group. A major part of each of their jobs was managing projects, and they found it useful to share issues and seek advice from each other.

Fatma worked for a very successful Internet company whose founders believed that everyone in the firm should devote three days a year to community service projects. The company was partnering with several companies in the construction industry to renovate abandoned buildings for low$-$jncome families. The next project was the renovation of an empty warehouse into eight two$-$bedroom apartments. Fatma was part of the core team in charge of scheduling and managing work assignments.

Viktoria and Jasper entered the restaurant together. Viktoria was the first to move to the Bay Area. She was currently working on

Page $24$

the next$-$generation neural stimulator $("$PAX $2").$ Neural stimulators are electronic devices that doctors implant in patients with wires connected to sources of pain in the patient's spine. In the past, patients would have to have an operation to replace the stimulator battery every $10$ years. PAX $2$ was being designed to take advantage of new battery technologies and use a rechargeable battery. In concept, this battery system would eliminate the need for replacement surgeries and allow the implanted battery to be recharged externally. Viktoria's team had just completed the second prototype and was entering a critical testing phase. It had been tricky trying to predict the lifespan of the new rechargeable battery without testing it in real time. She was anxious to begin seeing the test results.

Jasper was working for a start$-$up company after doing contract work for his first nine months in San Francisco. He was sworn to secrecy about the project and all Fatma and Viktoria knew was that the project had something to do with sharing economy. He was working with a