University of Arkansas RFID Research Center Receives National Recognition

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The RFID (radio frequency identification) Research Center at the University of Arkansas has been listed by Network World in the top “10 really cool university networking labs.” The article appeared on Dec. 15, 2008.

In addition, RFID Journal’s Watch List, “People to Watch,” includes — among the eight on its list — Bill Hardgrave, director of the RFID Research Center. The list appeared in the November/December 2008 issue.

“I give all the credit for this recognition to the staff, students and faculty who have worked so hard to make the RFID Research Center and its laboratory a world-class operation,” said Hardgrave.

According to the Network World, “Here’s a brief look at 10 such labs, which are working on the next wave of technologies that could be coming soon or maybe further down the road to a network near you.”

Also included in the list were Rutgers University’s Wireless Information Network Laboratory; University of California, Berkeley’s Parallel Computing Laboratory; Stanford University’s Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics Lab; Carnegie Mellon University’s Data Center Observatory; Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Manycore Computing; Oregon State University’s Open Source Lab; Iowa State University of Science and Technology’s Internet-Scale Event and Attack Generation Environment; University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Lab; and University of Chicago’s National Center for Data Mining.

Network World said that the RFID Research Center is cool because it is not only used by engineering students and faculty, but is also staffed by students from every college on campus. “That speaks to the many applications RFID has and will have, including loss prevention, inventory accuracy. The Center consists of a 10,000-square-foot lab at Hanna’s Candle Co., plus 4,500-square-foot lab in a cold storage facility. The labs feature conveyors, forklifts and other things you’d find in stores and warehouses that use RFID for their supply chains, asset tracking and such. Big name companies such as J.B. Hunt, Dillard’s and Wal-Mart are among more than 50 supporting work at the lab. The center is a founding member of the Global RF Lab Alliance.”

The other seven “People to Watch” in the RFID Journal list include Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering; Henri Barthel, director of global partnerships and projects for GS1, an organization that designs and implements global standards and solution; Alan Estevez, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration for the U.S. Department of Defense; Carlo Nizam, head of value chain visibility and RFID at Airbus; Mike O’Shea, director of RFID for Kimberly-Clark; Doug McMillon, chief executive officer of Sam’s Club; and Gerd Wolfram, managing director of MGI Metro Group Information Technology.

The RFID Research Center officially opened its laboratory in the Fayetteville Industrial Park in June 2005. It is housed in the Information Technology Research Institute, which is part of the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

The laboratory primarily conducts research into the most efficient use of radio frequency identification and other wireless and sensor technologies throughout the supply chain. It is the first and only academic research laboratory accredited by EPCglobal Inc., a global not-for-profit standards organization commercializing the trademarked Electronic Product Code and RFID worldwide.