RFID Research Center Opening New Home to Visitors

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas RFID Research Center opens its expanded research facility to visitors and guests on Sept. 11 to show off the most complete simulation facility for supply chain technology operating today. University of Arkansas students will be on hand to demonstrate RFID technology and retail supply chain technology concepts.

The facility at 1637 Fred Hanna Drive in Fayetteville is the third location for the center since it was founded in 2005 as part of the Information Technology Research Institute at the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Radio frequency identification, or RFID, uses a wireless system to transmit data from tags on products to a receiver for the purpose of identifying and tracking the product through the supply chain.

“After seven years of intensive research into emerging technology in the retail supply chain, we’ve been able to build the most complete supply chain technology simulation facility operating today,” said Justin Patton, director of the RFID Research Center.

The expanded facility includes improvements to the demonstration, research and laboratory areas and means a larger scope for the center’s mission. New areas for the study of emerging supply chain and retail technologies are planned for future development, further expanding upon the current on-site educational opportunities for students and visitors. The facility also houses testing areas and office amenities for board member companies and associated businesses of the University of Arkansas RFID Research Center.

“RFID is currently undergoing a very rapid adoption cycle, and the new center will continue to serve as a jumping off point for most new RFID retail pilots,” Patton said. “We now have the opportunity and resources to start combining RFID with other emerging retail technologies. This is where it gets really exciting. With the huge upheaval in physical retail stores as well as the addition of mobile purchasing and the Internet, the supply chain of the future is being completely rewritten with a new focus on technology. The new center puts the University of Arkansas firmly at the forefront of these efforts.”

The new facility is a 20,000-square-foot existing warehouse space, roughly twice the size of the center’s previous location. The grand opening is the first opportunity for the public to view the newly remodeled lab areas and is the culmination of design plans that were unveiled at the center’s seven-year anniversary event in June.

More than 30 industry-leading companies joined forces with the University of Arkansas to found the research center to support a multidisciplinary, neutral, third-party research and testing facility. The RFID Research Center officially opened its first laboratory on June 10, 2005, after receiving $2 million in total commitments from sponsors.

The RFID Research Center has collaborative relationships with researchers across the University of Arkansas, including the departments of accounting, economics, finance, information systems, management, marketing and supply chain management in the Walton College; the departments of computer science, computer engineering, industrial engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering; the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies and the department of public policy in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; the department of food science in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences; and the School of Law.